Calling government-subsidized dwellings on prime real estate “affordable” reverses the meaning of that word. The Henderson County Commissioners tended to agree, costing a project of the nonprofit Housing Assistance Corporation $7.1 million in potential federal tax credits. Good – except the HAC is announcing a regroup. It now proposes an urban milieu of 66 apartments and 18 single-family homes.
But for Oklawaha Village to fly, the city must annex 10 acres of property near Mud Creek not included in Campano’s original deal, rezone all 18 acres to Planned Residential Development, and approve a new special use permit.
The city must also allow a sewage extension to the property, tunneling under Mud Creek to tie into a trunk line on the other side. Roughly 1,100 feet of water line must be extended to the property from a main near Duncan Hill Road.
The project would also assistance from the USDA to the tune of about $24,000 off market housing values for sweat equity as well as a stipulation that mortgage and property tax payments, for persons earning no more than 80 percent of AMI, may not exceed 30 percent of household income. In the context of government finance, banks should love this enough to support property tax increases just to watch themselves fold.
As an added bonus, the project will require $5.9 million in federal tax credits. More tax credits could have made for spiffier digs for those who can’t stand the stigma of the simple life, but the legislature had the crazy idea that better aligning earnings with market-value rents might force more sustainable adjustments to the economy.
