TAX CREDITS OK'd FOR OLD ST. FRANCIS; APPROVAL PAVES THE WAY FOR 48-UNIT APARTMENT COMPLEX

Affordable housing might be easier to find in Southeast Missouri following announcement by the Missouri Housing Development Commission of funding for 43 projects across the state, including $13.4 million in housing tax credits.

A project that would result in a 48-unit apartment complex on the site of old St. Francis hospital received more than $600,000 in combined tax-credit assistance from the federal and state governments. The project will help people who can't buy a home because they lack a down payment, said Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator for Cape Girardeau.

Construction could begin by late summer after the city demolishes the old hospital building at 801 Good Hope St.

Philips Development Corp. of Little Rock, Ark., owns the site. Rick Pierce, who helps find building sites for the company, said the project will move ahead as planned now that the tax credits are in place.

The tax credits will help with financing construction of the Fort Hope project, which will include a number of two-story, vinyl and brick buildings. Plans also include construction of a community room and laundry that will also house offices for Family Resource Center Inc.

Pierce said he expects bulldozers to clear the property after demolition and a subcontractor to arrive the next day to grade the property. The property is properly zoned for multifamily housing.

When looking for sites to build on, "you don't always get what you would like," Pierce said. Most lots need some sort of clearing and dirt work, but the old St. Francis site needed more work than most.

The demolition process will be lengthy because it involves environmental studies, asbestos removal and posting bids for demolition before any work can start, Williams said.

City officials hope the project will help spur other development and stabilize the neighborhood. "We still have a need for additional housing," said Kent Bratton, city planner.

The matter has been a concern of the City Council's, which had allotted $500,000 for demolition. The city received a $250,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development to help pay some of the demolition costs. The building has been condemned since 1998.

Pierce said the company will save the hospital cornerstone as a marker at the site. "We have to take it down," he said. "It's a shame it was vacant for as long as it was. We want to acknowledge the fact that it did exist."

Matching amounts of $1 million in state and federal tax credits for projects across the Bootheel were approved, but it won't meet all needs. "We know there is a dramatic need, and we've been doing what we could," said Dave Bryan, spokesman for the Kansas City-based housing commission.

Although areas in Kansas City and St. Louis continue to get a large percentage of funding 55 percent more programs than before in the outlying areas are receiving money, the commission said.

Finding affordable housing outside the metropolitan areas "is a more difficult problem in that there is more space to cover," said Bryan.

The 43 developments that received commission funding will create 848 new housing units and rehabilitate another 541 units. Most Southeast Missouri projects are rehabilitations, which account for 154 units. The Phillips Corp. is the only new construction project in Southeast Missouri funded.

Sometimes it takes longer to get support for a particular project, Bryan said, and that often has been the case in Southeast Missouri. "It's a matter of all the right people getting together," he said. Developers and cities proposing a housing project must show all their financial arrangements, methods of maintenance and operation for the duration of the program, he said. "It's painstaking to get it all down," he said.

It is often hard to get developers and cities together to talk about a need , Bryan said.

Williams said developers from as far away as Florida have contacted the city seeking information about the housing tax-credit program. Five housing units in Cape Girardeau, two of them for the elderly, were built with funding from the Missouri Housing Development Commission.

Finding affordable housing

More than 200 proposals were submitted to the Missouri Housing Development Commission for consideration in the 2000 Rental Production and Missouri Housing Trust Fund programs.

Rental Production

119 applications submitted.

43 received funding.

Funding includes:

$13.4 million in low-income housing tax credits.

$7 million in MHDC loans.

$10.1 million in federal HOME loans

$2.2 million in federal HOME community housing development organization funds.

Five Southeast Missouri projects were approved in Cape Girardeau, New Madrid and Dunklin counties. Combined, the projects received $1 million in tax credits from each federal and state governments. The tax credits are valid for the duration of the loan program.

Missouri Housing Trust Fund

111 applications submitted

73 received funding.

The commission approved $5.5 million in funding for the programs, mostly supported by nonprofit or community organizations that offer housing assistance or homeless shelters.

The money is generated by a $3 fee collected on the recording of all real estate related documents in the state.

The Safe House for Women in Cape Girardeau received full funding of $5,000 for its housing assistance grant.

Source: Missouri Housing Development Corp. Web site www.mdhc.com