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Finding a place in the worldSunday, August 5, 2007
The wait for federal housing assistance in Cape Girardeau County has been decreasing but is still at least a year and a half, according to Bill Tucker, who is in charge of housing for the East Missouri Action Agency. Right now the agency is attempting to find Section 8 housing for families who applied in January 2006. Nearly 1,000 families or individuals are on the waiting list. But if a project called Magnolia Place is funded and the city of Cape Girardeau approves, nine families struggling to find a place in the world could be living in new houses only four months later. The faith-based organization Project Hope proposes building nine 1,200-square-foot houses using a construction technology that reduces utilities costs to about $230 per year. The three-bedroom, two-bath houses would provide families with transitional rental housing for 15 to 24 months. The goal is to provide the training to prepare for owning homes. The site for the homes is in the 500 block of North Main Street and North Spanish Street. An existing building formerly housed an automotive shop. Owner Jim Riley added a new parking lot to the south. Because of the community-building work it does, Project Hope is eligible for about $500,000 in tax credits that can be sold through the Neighborhood Assistance Program. Project Hope is waiting to hear whether the Missouri Department of Economic Development has approved. Cape Girardeau architect Phillip B. Smith has designed the $1.2 million to $1.5 million development. Project Hope's offices, currently in a converted house on Woodlawn Avenue in Cape Girardeau, would move to an existing building on the 1.9-acre property. Riley has agreed to donate the property to Project Hope for the assumption of debt. Love Inc., another faith-based organization that serves as a clearinghouse to connect churches with people who want their help, and other organizations would be invited to share the spacious headquarters building with Project Hope. Organizers are investigating child-care possibilities. Project Hope (see related story) coordinates mentoring for people in difficult situations, often because of addiction, poverty or disabilities. The organization works through 60 participating congregations in Southeast Missouri. People who are progressing through mentoring sometimes slip again, often because they are isolated, said Denis Rigdon, chief executive officer of Project Hope. "It's of significant value to have people in a healthy living situation." Project Hope also has arranged to administer Family Development Accounts for the residents at Magnolia Place. The accounts provide state and federal matching funds to help low-income families save a nest egg to be used for pursuing an education, getting job training, buying a house or starting a business. Transitional housing and affordable housing are two of the community's greatest needs, said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri. People making the transition after drug and alcohol rehabilitation, people getting out of prison, women whose husbands have left them with no money and no skills, and women who have escaped from domestic violence all need transitional housing, she said. Anyone with a history of substance abuse would have to be in a post-treatment recovery program at the Gibson Recovery Center or the Family Counseling Center. Or they could be coming out of the Teen Challenge secondary recovery program in Cape Girardeau, whose graduates completed 12 to 18 months of initial drug treatment before coming here. But some renters are paying $400 a month for utilities in houses and apartments that lack weatherization, Jernigan said. "They keep pouring money into utility bills when they should be putting it to other uses." 'An exciting opportunity' Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson has been briefed on the project. "It seems like an exciting opportunity from the city's standpoint," he said. He is especially enthused about developing housing in an area where many houses are in deteriorating condition. "I'm excited about the redevelopment of the area," Knudtson said. He urged that the development's neighbors be kept informed about Project Hope's plans so that they understand it is not a homeless shelter. Bill Prost, a Cape Girardeau marketing consultant who is about to mount the project's capital campaign, assures that isn't the case. A job will be one of the requirements for getting into Magnolia Place. "We're trying to make good, solid citizens," he said. The houses are to be made with ARXX Insulating Concrete Forms, a method that sandwiches layers of Polystyrene around a concrete core. The inside is drywalled, while exterior finishing is added to the outside. The result can't be differentiated from a stick construction house, but the walls have an R-50 rating compared to the R-19 rating of a typical poured wall. The houses also are expected to withstand an F3 tornado. "This is good housing everybody can be proud of," Prost said. Drury Supply Co. distributes ARXX concrete forms. Drury's Charlie Westrich said the construction method has been used in a number of Cape Girardeau buildings, including the Holiday Inn Express pool house, an office building next to West Park Lanes on Silver Springs Road and a Habitat for Humanity house in the 1200 block of College Street. Jackson also has an ARXX four-unit apartment building at Union and Main streets and a house at 2081 Providence. Rigdon said the project has the potential to benefit other communities. "It has taken us seven years to learn what we've learned," he said. He and Prost, a Caruthersville, Mo., native, pointed out that only 70 of the 500 houses destroyed by Caruthersville's April 2006 tornado have been rebuilt. Capital campaign to begin Project Hope is about to begin a capital campaign to raise the money to buy the property, which is already under contract. Little site work will need to be done. The Ellis-Wathen-Ranney House, a mansion built by the same architect who designed Cape Girardeau's Glenn House Victorian museum, occupied the land until it was demolished in 1958. Two abandoned houses on the west side of the property would be razed. Rigdon said the goal is pay off the project within three years and then begin expanding to include more families. Riley owns more property in the vicinity that could be accessed. The houses will cost only about $80,000 each to build, in part because they are close together and will be built at the same time. Rigdon hopes eventually to coordinate the program with the house-building work of Habitat for Humanity. On a national scale, the problems of chronic homelessness have gotten more attention than those of temporary homelessness, said Roy Jones, housing coordinator for the Community Caring Council. He is involved with Habitat for Humanity but thinks Section 8 housing would be the next logical step after leaving Magnolia Place because a limited amount of Habitat houses are available. Charles Horn, a housing specialist with the East Missouri Action Agency in Cape Girardeau, said the length of the wait for housing assistance can be difficult to estimate because no one knows when money will be coming from the federal government and how much. The waiting list for Section 8 housing has been closed since October. More than 1,500 people in Cape Girardeau County are currently living in Section 8 housing, about 2.2 percent of the population. In Paducah, Ky., a city Cape Girardeau is often compared to, about 10 percent of the population receives housing assistance. This includes 882 units operated by the Housing Authority of Paducah. Getting into housing operated by that organization does not require much of a wait, according to executive director Cal Ross. Like Cape Girardeau, Paducah does not have transitional housing. 335-6611, extension 137 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. 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Why not propose alternative power for the ENTIRE city of Cape Girardeau? We have a river, why not resort to hydro-power? Or Put in those wind towers? That's where the future is heading.
If the City had it's own power supply, that could solve it's financial woes and create jobs.
Remember a few years ago, this piece of land was going to be a upscale apartment community called Spanish Court?
I have more to say, but haven't read the entire article yet.
The first thing I would like to note is that they say this will be a transitional housing program that will move people in and out every 15-24 months to give them training to prepare for owning homes. Giving somebody a new home is not going to prepare them for owning and taking care of their own homes, because after 15-24 months of living there, they won't have a clue on how to take care of a used 30-50 year old home that has problems. These people won't be able to buy a new home once leaving here, so the program really doesn't work in my book.
I remember the developers (Wyman and Riley) had trouble getting the city to allow them to build spanish court due to height restrictions of the buildings blocking the view of the river for the existing surrounding residents. So I would like to see the reaction to low-income housing going into that area.
More to come....
If there is anything we have learned about low income housing and its negative impact on areas Is that you do not put all the low income folks in the same location. They need to be dispersed throughout the community so that they are not with people who do not know how to make money and have other issues. I think this is a good concept with the energy efficient model but it needs to work more like habitat for humanity. Where residents are not all in one location. This creates an instant ghetto. Poverty multiplies with isolated. Why not take that same money and partner with habitat for humanity. Build some low income energy efficient houses on the plot and some homes for regular working class folks. Remember Pruitt Igo(sp?) this plan will get you that model
Okay, $80,000 per house (with no garage) That means that everyone has to park at the parking spaces shown in the picture. This might allude to the fact that they want the homes to look nice and not have junky vehicles park in front of them. Back to the price, they are going to build 9 of them, that totals $720,000 then you have to figure the cost of concrete for the parking lots, and the cost of landscaping, lighting, and utilities. Then they are going to take an existing building and convert it into office spaces for them and other private entities. Now who is going to pay for the extension of Spanish street that isn't there as we speak? I think that was left out of the article. We are going to have to pay more taxes probably for the city to pay for the road to be extended. This is probably all in the works as we speak, but who knows. There is also about an acre of land of the left side of the future spanish street that is in the picture but not shown entirely. What becomes of that acre? I think the paper needs to investigate this further, because if this project has alot of loose ends as it sounds, then this could become problematic as time goes on.
There needs to more criteria for occupying those homes. All they said was that they need a job. Well whoopy doo, that's all you need? Let's start by saying that both the husband and wife needs a job. All adult tenants can't be convicted felons, be on the sexual offender's list, have convictions for alcohol or drugs, and be married if they have children. The last thing you want is to see your taxpaying dollars going to a program to benefit people who have gone through life without a care in the world living in a new taxpayer funded house with 3 kids from 2 different fathers, where the wife doesn't work and the current boyfriend has been in and out of jail for drugs and alcohol and the only job is able to obtain is working the midnight shift at gas station.
First start by telling the possible tenants that there employment will be checked on a monthly basis, that all adult tenants be employed. That there yards and homes be well kept and free of junk and debris. That any problems arising from disrespect to the home be there responsibility to fix. If a crime is committed by any occupying family member that results in a conviction of drugs or any felony will result in eviction. Well you see where I am going with this.
If you want to own a home and set your life straight, first go to church. Then keep away from any of the devil's work such as alcohol, drugs, smoking, and unprotected sex. Go to school get an education no matter if your 18 or 88. And stay far far away from people who lived the life you once lived, because just like anything else it can rub off on you. Get a job and save 10% of yearly pay for 3 years and go out and get a rural-development/first time homeowner loan with no down payment program and buy a house. Raise your kids in a safe and educated environment and keep away from your previous life.
Notice they moved this from the front page pronto? Is it they are trying to push this through without community knowledge?
1. NO ONE is being "given" a home. People will earn the opportunity themselves, be mentored by congregations, helped to complete a life plan, build capabilities to acquire home ownership, e.g. use triple matched savings accounts from earned income, and move into homes that will be very similar, if not exactly the same as those in which they build their skills. The real keys not reported in this story are the zero energy cost by using renewable energy source and income that will be matched with CDFI funding to qualify people moving forward with their mentoring and their life plans until they can achieve market-value rates for rental or home ownership. It's taken 10 years of planning, trips to other communities, conversations with nationally recognized experts, even experts around the world on renewalble energy, stainless steel solar shingles, pilot programs in St. Louis, Chicago, Virgina, etc. to be able to put enough together to develop this plan. Experience with hundreds of people being mentored in multiple communities from failure to success have taught program directors that "spreading people around town" does not work. Families and individuals are isolated and frequently fail before their mentors can reach them or give up from multiple things happening at one time. The key to the center is mentor contact, staff training, education through video conferencing, congregations teaching ongoing, gap-filled education, e.g. parenting, family strenghth building, etc. not now being presented in an ongoing basis, having a daycare onsite, and including a local food bank. Transportation has already been arranged through CCTA. Support of other people at various points in transformation of life is an important, internal program benefit of mentoring each other. The newspaper article could not cover all that has been done in getting to this point, visits to Paducah, Branson, Chicago, St. Louis, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, D.C., Oklahoma, etc. to put this all together using a format that has worked in states like Kentucky, which uses a simlar format for their satewide program at building self-capacity through their "Scholar House" efforts.
Dear NoDisclosure, perhaps you missed the comment that people were going to be directed toward a Habitat home. Please read the comment about research done onsite in other towns, states and nations.
Project HOPE has proposed a plan being implemented in New Orleans to Caruthersville and also promotes employing the use of renwable energy to help support surplus utilities for communities to use in luring business and maintaining utility supply and lower costs for the the future. That's the idea about making these homes able to produce surplus energy from renewable energy source. The story has limited space in the paper and the entire plan could not be reported. Actually multiple communities are working with Project HOPE toward implementing similar basic plans building the capacity of people to work a life plan that reaches for success, beyond a living wage, benefits, home ownership or market-value rental, which is the choice of some people in life. The strength of the plan are the congregations who mentor today using the training brought to town, implemented, and upgraded by Project HOPE.
That's always been one of the main problems with low-income housing: that the only real criteria for living in them is income. God forbid we "discrimate" by setting out rules that the residents must be employed unless disabled; must take care of the property and accept perioidic inspections of it; must not get convicted of any crimes--and last but not least, will not conceive children while living in the taxpayer-funded housing meant to give them a step up in life. All those things would be labeled "intrusive," but for those benefiting from government aid, shouldn't they be willing to abide by some guidelines and rules in order to get the help?
Government housing has, for the most part, become a permanent way of life for many people, rather than a "helping hand" to a better, more self-sufficient way of life. That's a shame, because there are many decent, deserving people who need and would appreciate the housing while they work to advance themselves.
There going to directed toward a habitat home? Wow, which one? The one being occupied, or the other one being occupied too? I mean there are so many habitat homes out there. If that was really true, wouldn't that mean that every 15-24 years that they would have to build "9" more habitat homes? At that rate a new community the size of Scott City would be complete by the year 2030. Let's call it Habitat City.
Wow Denis, you must be Al Gore's favorite citizen. With all that renewable energy technology you are creating maybe my electric bills will be lowered.
By the way the house in Jackson on Providence is close to a 500,000 dollar home. They probably welcome such technology.
NoDisclosure, if I were you, I would feel I owed an apology about now. You began harping on this project before, by your own admission, you had even read the whole article. Go back now and read the whole thing carefully. It specifically states that, "A job will be ONE of the requirements for getting into Magnolia Place." Then you state this program won't really work, again before you have read the whole thing. The article states that Project Hope has researched this for SEVEN years. Do you think they would proceed if they had not thought it out? They have made plans, observed many other community models, applied for funds, etc. Then you ask about the land at the end of the street, which the article plainly states they may be able to purchase in the future. Your next piece of advice was to go to church to get your life straight. Many, many times the article mentioned how this entire effort and project is founded upon faith-based mentoring. Renewableenergy has given you a mountain of information in addition to what was in the original news story. Read it!
I didn't say it would never work. I just don't see why it has to be so small if the demand is so huge. They say there is great demand for housing and are just now working on applicants from January 2006. If what you say is true, then why build just single family homes? Why not build 4-Unit apartment buildings just like the one in Jackson on Union and Main?
Mr_Nutty_Pancakes, part of the multi-city, multi-state effort to transform housing and provide expanded opportunities for home ownership and retention has addressed this very idea, i.e. linking home ownership with producing surplus utilities used to attract and support local business, revitalization,and entreprenuerial development. This will lead to expand employment opportunities, more energy producing homes, more surplus energy, more business promotion . . .
Dear NoDisclosure, the idea is to locate near the university and other resources so the effort will allow a continual "pipeline" of people who progress into developments that meet their needs, wants, progress, future, etc. Habitat is a great homeownership program which has helped a huge number of people learn about building and maintaining their homes, just as the USDA Self-Help Housing has done. The idea of home ownership will be limited by available, affordable, desireable, etc. homes. It's not about housing everyone who needs a home, it's about economic and personal opportunity to attain this by people who want and choose this and, consequently, will work for this as their own, chosen goal. Developers will step forward as the housing need grows. National developers have been in conversation about this for several years with program staff.
That didn't take long. The only people who can afford alternative power are the very rich and the very poor! Someday soon there won't be a middle class to exploit anymore.
Nodisclosure, Yes, you did say it, "so the program really doesn't work in my book."
East Missouri Action Agency, which is in charge of Section 8 housing, is the entity which is just now working on housing requests from applicants of January, 2006. This is not related to Project Hope's grants and ability to build just nine houses at a time. In the future they will refer people to Section 8 housing and Habitat Homes.
Project Hope is building houses, not apartments, on purpose, for the reasons mentioned in the article, i.e., to help train working families in the basics of home ownership.
I am in no way affiliated with any of the agencies mentioned here. All I know about it is what I read yesterday from the article and from renewableenergy's comments.
I surely don't mean to be rude, Nodisclosure, but I do believe your reading comprehension skills could use a little work.
"This will lead to expand employment opportunities, more energy producing homes, more surplus energy, more business promotion . . ."
I'll believe it when I see it.
"Project Hope is building houses, not apartments, on purpose, for the reasons mentioned in the article, i.e., to help train working families in the basics of home ownership."
The basics of home ownership? Is that course availabe at the local vo-tech? What would you teach them? How to mow the yard, use a dishwasher, pay taxes, vaccuum the floor, pay bills, are you saying these people are too ignorant to take care of a home? It's not that hard people.
"Why not propose alternative power for the ENTIRE city of Cape Girardeau? We have a river, why not resort to hydro-power? Or Put in those wind towers? That's where the future is heading."
Mr. Nutty Pancakes is a Genius!
After reading the article for the upteenth time, I think I have a better handle of who the first set of tenants should be and that is 9 single mothers. Cape County has a ton of them and they would greatly benefit from having somebody teach them the basics of home ownership. Most young women don't have a clue when it comes to the basics of how the world works. Let's give them the houses first before reformed drug users and alcoholics.
One other thing to you frenchy and that is I am not apologizing to anybody. I have the right to my opinion just like anybody else.
I know somebody personally who worked for Project Hope and still has contact with them. He needs to go back to the 10th grade and work his way back from there. He is 30something going on 15. If he is a prime example of what Project Hope churns out, then god pray for us all.
(geez...) No, Nodisclosure, I was thinking the basics of home ownership to be more things like calculating not only a house payment, but taxes and insurance; how to empty the overflow tank of a water heater; basic plumbing and electrical fixes; where to turn off the water and gas; how to inspect for termites; I don't know - all the things I had to learn on my own when I became a home owner for the first time about 26 years ago as a single parent. And absolutely, this may be necessary because these first tenants may be the first homeowners in their family's histories so they did not learn these skills from THEIR parents. You would be surprised - when people have rented all their lives, they may not know how to take care of plumbing systems, heating and a/c filters, or other little jobs we now take for granted. But it doesn't even matter that I am trying to help you see things in a different way, because you, like 90% of the posters on here are determined to be cynical, hateful, judgmental, and negative.
Bon nuit!