Road for Phenix City Housing Authority paved by Columbus

On Monday, the Phenix City Housing Authority announced that it was going to move forward with the redevelopment of Riverview Court, the oldest property in its inventory.

The local housing authority is joining with a Montgomery, Ala., real estate firm and a Tuscaloosa, Ala., developer to make a deal work that will eventually impact more than 1,100 residents over five years.

It has been happening across the Chattahoochee River since 2002 when the Housing Authority of Columbus began the transformation of Peabody Apartments on Talbotton Road into Ashley Station.

Len Williams is the executive director of the Housing Authority of Columbus, and he has led the demolition and redevelopment of four aging properties: Peabody; Baker Village, off Victory Drive; Chapman Homes, in south Columbus; and Booker T. Washington, at the intersection of Veterans Parkway and Victory Drive.

There are two factors driving this redevelopment, Williams said on Tuesday.

“This is the trend because of aging public housing stock and decreased funding,” Williams said. “We are getting less money in real dollars than public housing got in 1987. That is not enough to keep these properties going. You must look at other options — and one of those is the private developers and tax credits.”

Mary Mayrose, executive director of the Phenix City Housing Authority, said lack of funding is causing organizations like hers to look for other solutions to providing low-income, subsidized housing.

“In order to continue to provide this much-needed resource of low-income and affordable housing in a community, public housing authorities must begin to think and operate like the private multi-family market as well as look for resources in areas that have not typically entertained public/private partnerships,” Mayrose said. “This funding gap requires authorities to partner with real estate developers, for-profit and non-profit, on financing new construction and acquisition/renovation of multi-family projects as well as pursue funding with foundations and grant awarding entities to bring the project to fruition.”

But when you travel that road, it must be with careful planning and great caution, Williams warned.

“You have to be strategic about it because you must build a sustainable model over time,” he said.

The Columbus housing authority partnered with Integral Group out of Atlanta to redevelop the Peabody site into Ashley Station. The project was also funded by a $20 million federal HOPE VI grant. Patriot Pointe, a senior living facility that was part of the Baker Village redevelopment, is about to be under the control of the housing authority as they buy out the developer, Columbia Residential out of Atlanta. The Columbus housing authority is also managing Arbor Pointe, another piece of the Baker redevelopment.

“When programs like HOPE VI were fully funded by Congress, a Public Housing Authority could apply and get a multi-million dollar project completed and there were numerous partners in those kinds of deals, and the end result being a major investment in a community that in turn sparked future investment,” Mayrose said. “The HOPE VI program is no longer offered and there has been no program through HUD since to backfill any of these types of projects.”

That led the Columbus housing authority to seek alternatives.

“We made a decision that we wanted our staff managing Arbor Pointe and we are about to buy out the general partner,” Williams said. “If you continued to take down properties without getting a piece of it, you would eventually go out of business.”

The Columbus housing authority will use that same model as it proceeds with the demolition and redevelopment of the BTW site. The last of the buildings are coming down now and the property that fronts Victory and Veterans will be marketed for commercial development, while the inside property will be redeveloped for mix-income housing.

But all you have to do is look at the housing stock on both sides of the river to understand the need for creative solutions.

There has not been a new public housing complex built in Phenix City since 1971, though a number of units inside Riverview were remodeled in 2004. Part of the proposal to revamp and redevelop Riverview is the addition of a new 84-unit complex about two miles away intersection of 24th Street and 19th Avenue.

The new $13.8 million complex, which will be called Hidden Hills Trace, is not far from the Phenix City Intermediate School off South Railroad Street. It is near the old youth baseball fields in an area commonly referred to as Pumpkin Bottom.

Here are the properties currently owned by the Phenix City Housing Authority:

<bullet> Riverview Court Apartments, 100 16^th Street, 306 unites, opened Dec. 31, 1940.

<bullet> Frederick Douglass Homes, 400 12^th Ave., 272 units, opened Sept. 30, 1941.

<bullet> Lucien P. Stough Homes, 101 10^th Ave. South, 200 units, opened Dec. 31, 1961.

<bullet> H. L. Blake Homes, 2000 20^th Court, 71 units, opened June 30, 1965.

<bullet> Whispering Pines, 1200 12^th Ave., 76 units, open Dec. 31, 1971.

The Housing Authority of Columbus inventory shows much more construction in recent years.

▪  Warren Williams, 1200 Warren Williams Rd., 160 units, constructed in 1945.

▪  Nicholson Terrace, 1313 14^th Street, 100 units, constructed in 1965.

▪  Rivers Homes, 1050 Adair Ave., 24 units, constructed in 1963.

▪  Wilson Homes,3400 8^th Ave., 289 units, constructed in 1952.

▪  Chase Homes, 120 20^th Street, 108 units, constructed in1952.

▪  Canty Homes, 100 Canty Place, 249 units, constructed in 1951, additional units added in 1959.

▪  Farley Homes, 1901 Nina Street, 102 units, constructed in 1958.

▪  E.J. Knight Elderly, 3610 Youman Street, 40 units, constructed in 1982.

▪  E.J. Knight Family, 3811 Baker Plaza Drive, 52 units, constructed in 1982.

▪  Willow Glen (Supportive Housing), 2971 Buena Vista Rd. 28 units, constructed in 2008.

▪  Columbus Villas, 6016 Georgetown Drive, 88 units (Project Based Vouchers – Section 8), purchased by HACG 1987.

▪  Legacy Terrace is owned by the City of Columbus, but Managed by HACG, 801 9^th Street, 17 units, constructed in 2008.

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 10:06 PM with the headline "Road for Phenix City Housing Authority paved by Columbus."