Close to 150 units, including this duplex unit in the Willingham Village public housing community in West Rome, could get a major facelift if the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority is able to partner with a private developer and get into a low-income housing tax credit program through HUD and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. (Doug Walker / RN-T.com)
Northwest Georgia Housing Authority members Hilda Curtis (from left), Susan Clemons and Lillie Dyar listen to a report about the Willingham Village public housing community. (Doug Walker / RN-T.com)
The partnership would be the NWGHA’s first major foray into a low-income housing tax-credit development. Applications for the tax credit projects are due to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs March 15, one week from this Friday.
NWGHA attorney Stewart Duggan was hesitant to recommend that the authority move forward with a Memorandum of Understanding with Bridgeland and RHA. He cited the lack of information regarding the Housing and Urban Development Department’s new Rental Assistance Demonstration program.
The RAD program was conceived by HUD as a means to assist in the renovation of deteriorating public housing units across the nation. After the privately financed renovation, the entire Willingham Village complex would be designated as 100-percent Section 8 rental assistance housing. The owners would be eligible for rental subsidies from HUD that would be equal to approximately 70 percent of the renter’s household income.
Willingham Village — off Division Street — is owned by the NWGHA, and last year it had a positive cash flow of approximately $740,000.
“Under the present structure that this developer is promoting, we would lose control; we would lose management,” Duggan said.
Duggan said the authority would be getting a one-time developer’s fee of between $700,000 and $800,000 which it could use for any purpose the authority wanted to going forward.
“I’m just not in a position to recommend that we go forward right now with these terms; ... here they won’t even give us 51-percent majority interest,” Duggan said.
NWGHA Executive Director Sandra Hudson said she would contact other
housing authorities that have gotten involved in tax-credit projects in the past to see how their deals compared to the Bridgeland/RHA proposal.
Hudson also told the NWGHA board of directors that she would contact other developers to determine if there might be enough interest to put together a last-minute proposal.
Twenty-five of the 176 units in Willingham Village have been completely renovated by the housing authority in the last couple of years.