Habitat for Humanity offers to buy land from the Dunedin Housing Authority and build its first townhomes.
By MEGAN SCOTT, Times Staff Writer
Published September 15, 2005
DUNEDIN - The Dunedin Housing Authority has reached a tentative agreement to sell part of its land to Pinellas Habitat for Humanity to build up to 30 townhomes, a first for the nonprofit affiliate.
On Tuesday, housing commissioners unanimously agreed to negotiate with Habitat on the price of 2.6 acres on Howell Street, home to the former Highlander Village.
Habitat offered $350,000 for the property. Estimates on the market value of the entire 5.5-acre property range from $735,000 to $1.3-million. Housing commissioners will hold onto the remaining half of the land for now.
"It is an appropriate offer that does two things," said Tim Shepherd, chairman of DHA. "One, it provides the housing authority capital to go on with other projects and two, it provides the opportunity for the authority to join with Habitat and produce affordable housing on that property."
The three-bedroom townhomes would cost $82,000, meeting the authority and city commissioners' desire to provide housing that costs less than $150,000.
"From what the folks in Largo and St. Petersburg are telling us, their affordable housing units are running from $145,000 to $165,000," said Darrell Irions, executive director of the Pinellas County Housing Authority, which oversees the DHA.
"That's not what the (DHA) board wanted there."
The decision Tuesday was the first step in more than a year of discussion over what to do with the Highlander Village public housing complex, which had been home for low-income families and seniors for more than three decades.
Problems with deterioration, asbestos and lead paint led HUD officials to decide it was more cost-effective to relocate tenants than clean up the site.
Tenants, whose income-based rent was subsidized by the Housing Authority, were given Section 8 vouchers to find other homes.
The Housing Authority received a grant for the demolition, but no funds to rebuild.
Earlier this year, the city had proposed purchasing some of the land to expand its wastewater treatment plant and then work with the DHA to develop affordable housing on the rest. City commissioners defeated the proposal.
The DHA had two options: Sell the land to a developer and develop affordable housing somewhere else, or partner with a developer or nonprofit to create affordable housing on that parcel.
They were advised against creating another public housing complex.
"There's too many regulations," Irions said. "Your income stream from the federal government is never guaranteed.
"In order for housing authorities to survive, you're going to have to deal more with affordable housing and try to get our lower-income families mixed in with higher-income families. The higher-income families can help subsidize those rents for lower-income families."
Dunedin housing commissioners wrestled with whether it was no longer possible to serve the poorest of the poor.
Finding developers willing to construct housing for poor people is tough, said Pat Weber, executive director of the Tarpon Springs Housing Authority.
"A lot of developers who are developing housing are more concerned with making money than serving people," said Weber. "It is easier to make money on the work force housing than the public housing."
Pinellas Habitat, which builds single-family homes, has never built townhomes before, said Scott Montjoy, construction manager. But with available land in Pinellas County at a premium, Habitat is trying to make do with the little that's left.
Montjoy envisions three-bedroom, two-bath townhomes, with perhaps a couple of small, single-family homes for the elderly.
"We are already in the process of redesigning our buildings," he said. "We can build with garages. We can build houses that are completely handicapped accessible. We can easily build styles that don't fit the mold we have already built."
Montjoy said the organization may only build 23 or 24 townhomes. Because of the permitting and design process, construction may not start for another two years.
But Dunedin has offered to work with Habitat to maximize the number of units it can build and speed up the site plan approval and permitting process.
The authority hopes to produce 100 affordable housing units in or near Dunedin over the next three to five years.
