Advertisement

Housing project signals renewal

 
Published June 20, 1993|Updated Oct. 9, 2005

Signs of efforts to rebuild North Greenwood are scattered all over the community in the form of new homes for low-income families.

But for the first time, the Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Service is doing more than just building one house at a time by reconstructing a chunk of the community on Myrtle Street.

"This is going to be our first subdivision," said Isay Gulley, the agency's executive director, who has been with the agency since 1980.

The non-profit corporation is scheduled in August to begin building seven homes on 1 acre adjacent to the Pinellas Trail. It should be completed by the end of the year and will be called the Trail Side subdivision, Gulley said.

Since December 1991, when the agency began administering what is called the Infill Housing program, 19 homes have been built in the community, said Jim Polatty, director of the city's Planning and Zoning Department.

"Our goal is to build 30 houses a year," Polatty told city commissioners last week.

The program is intended to rebuild languishing parts of North Greenwood by encouraging families to move into the community and to provide some help to those already there.

It was clear to officials two years ago that the community needed help when a survey done by Polatty's department showed that 67 percent of the homes and 64 percent of the buildings in the community were deteriorated or were deteriorating.

With the help of federal grants and low-interest loans from a consortium of local banks, the agency and city officials have targeted an area north of Drew Street, east of Fort Harrison Avenue, south of Stevenson's Creek and west of Betty Lane.

"Our mission is to revitalize the North Greenwood community," said Gulley, who has grandchildren in North Greenwood and has lived in the community since she was 13.

The program works this way: People who earn low and moderate incomes and can't get traditional bank loans for their own homes may qualify for Infill Housing. A family of four, for instance, cannot have a household income of more than $41,880, according to a federal scale. Banks set aside loan money, and the city guarantees the loans for five years. Prospective homeowners are required to make down payments of $1,000 to $1,200.

Houses in the program cost from $36,000 to $75,500, Gulley said. Most cost about $50,000.

Participants are required to take classes arranged by the agency on home maintenance and on family budgeting, said Gerald Spilatro, the agency's assistant director. The maintenance class gives a general overview, he said. The budgeting class is more in-depth and lasts two months, he said.

"Most of these families have lived in apartments all their lives," Spilatro said.

The Infill Housing program, relatively new, is not all the agency handles. The agency, established in 1979, has provided $2-million in loans for rehabilitating 200 homes in the community, Spilatro said. In the past 18 months, the agency has handled $1.1-million in loans for the Infill Housing program, he said.

Although they point to the new subdivision as a sign of success, rebuilding the community has not come without frustration, officials said.

There are vacant lots that property owners, some from out of state, have refused to sell, officials said. There are those who are willing to sell, but for an inflated price, officials said.

"People are holding us hostage because they are putting false values on the property," City Manager Michael Wright told city commissioners. "It's hard to acquire property at the price that would make it affordable."

Some families might be planning to pass the property on to heirs, Polatty said. Others, watching the rehabilitation of community, are holding on long enough for property values to increase. "They think the land can appreciate in 10 years," he said.

Although the agency plans to break ground soon on the 20th home before construction on the subdivision begins, progress is sometimes impeded, Gulley said.

"We're coming up with a lot of challenges in securing attractive lots for new construction," she said.

THE HOUSING SERVICE

Established in 1979 to provide low-interest loans to low- and moderate-income families for rehabilitating their homes. In December 1991, the non-profit corporation's responsibilities expanded when it began administering the Infill Housing program for the city. Federal money given to the city is used to buy lots. The agency oversees a low-interest loan program that is funded by a consortium of local banks.