BNSF homes part of low-income housing plan
The Whitefish Housing Authority is
seeking guidance about how to manage and rehabilitate three BNSF
donated homes in the Railway District. The renovation of these
properties will be part of a five-year plan to help WHA address the
need for affordable rentals in Whitefish.
“A big piece of the five-year plan is
the BNSF homes,” said WHA director SueAnn Grogan. “They are the
bird in hand.”
The housing authority has solicited for
proposals to help evaluate the structural integrity of the vacant
homes. Grogan wants to know if they need to be remodeled or totally
demolished. Two of the small homes on First Street between O’Brien
Avenue and Miles Avenue are in particularly bad shape with their
front doors boarded up. The third house is on the corner of Railway
and O’Brien and its doors are also boarded.
“If the bones are OK, do they just need
paint and carpet or structural changes,” Grogan questions. “How
will owning the three lots aid the housing authority in meeting our
affordable housing goals.”
She said WHA will entertain all
proposals, including the options to rent or redevelop the
properties, or offers for their purchase.
“Whatever final use is decided,” she
said, “it has to support what we do. We create and maintain
affordable housing opportunities.”
The housing authority is struggling to
keep the books balanced in lieu of cuts to federal subsidies and
funding, which was the impetus for creating a five-year plan.
Small housing authorities represent
about 80 percent of all housing agencies in the U.S., but receive
only 10 percent of the public housing and Housing Choice Voucher
funds, according to a report by the Public Housing Authorities
Directors Association.
Mountain View Manor, which opened in
1970 and was WHA’s first project, provides 50 apartments for the
elderly and disabled. Funding for WHA’s public housing has been cut
by about 70 percent since 2009, Grogan said.
WHA is currently looking at
repositioning the status of their public housing. They have
solicited for a consultant to help them decide if Mountain View
Manor should opt out of HUD-assisted housing and move to
project-based contract or project-based voucher programs.
Currently the housing authority owns
the Mountain Manor building.
Grogan says it’s difficult to cover
public housing operations without sufficient federal subsidies
because some tenants can’t afford to pay the amount of rent that is
needed for the authority to break even. The lowest rent paid is $50
a month.
“The want us to act like a business,”
she said, “but you can’t run the books like a business, not with
$50 rent. That is why we need subsidies.”
The deadline was Sept. 19 for
consultants to respond to WHA’s requests for guidance on the BNSF
homes and the five-year plan. Grogan notes that tenants at Mountain
Manor won’t be effected if a repositioning happens.
“We’re looking at the bottom line to
make sure we stick around,” she said.