APARTMENTS FOR ELDERLY GET FUNDING

Funding for a low-income housing unit for the elderly in Cape Girardeau was approved recently by the Missouri Housing Development Commission, as part of an effort to create affordable housing in rural areas of the state.

In 1998, the housing commission made an effort to seek more proposals from developers in rural areas, said David Bryan, the commission's public information officer.

"It's the first time that Kansas City and St. Louis didn't get all the money," Bryan said.

The Southeast region, which includes Hermann on the northern border to the Arkansas border on the south, received 19.6 percent of the allocated funding, based on its population.

St. Louis received 22.4 percent of the funding; Kansas City, 18.2 percent; the North-central region, 18.6 percent and the Southwest, 18.4 percent.

In its effort to create affordable housing, housing commission approved $22.9 million in funding for 42 developments for fiscal 1999 at a meeting Friday in Jefferson City.

Housing developments in the Southeast region, which includes parts of 32 counties, are an "even greater victory," Bryan said, because developers hadn't proposed housing units in that area before.

"Now they have come through with some good proposals," he said.

One of the proposals to receive funding is Rosebrook Apartments, a 40-unit apartment complex for the elderly to be built at 1501 Linden St. The apartments, proposed by MACO Development of Clarkton, will include 16, one-bedroom units and 24, two-bedroom units. Rent will range from $246 to $334 a month.

The project was approved for an $850,000, 30-year federal HOME loan and $181,767 in federal housing tax credits and the same amount in state tax credits.

Another project in Southeast Missouri to receive funding was a family development of 48 apartments in Poplar Bluff also to be built by MACO.

The Southeast region received funding for seven proposals in Butler, Cape Girardeau, Howell, Madison, Mississippi, Ste. Genevieve and Wright counties.

The 42 developments will create 1,164 new housing units and rehabilitate another 86 to make 963 family units and 287 units for the elderly. In all, 117 proposals were received by the commission.

The commission administers rental housing programs, including federal and state low-income housing tax credits.