State grants will help build housing for elderly in Perryville, repair homes in Cape

Efforts to rehabilitate homes occupied by low- to moderate-income owners in Cape Girardeau received a boost from the Missouri Housing Development Commission, but the city won't receive all the money it requested.

The commission, in a meeting held Friday in Columbia, also approved tax credits and a low-interest loan for a new 36-unit housing complex for the elderly in Perryville, Mo. The commission turned down similar requests for construction help in Cape Girardeau, Scott City, Jackson and a second apartment complex in Perryville.

Cape Girardeau will receive $20,000 to put toward rehabilitating homes in what the city has designated the Jefferson-Bloomfield project. The project, focusing on the one-block area bounded by Jefferson Avenue and Bloomfield Street between Pacific and Benton streets, provides up to $41,000 for major repairs and upgrades, said Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator for the city. The project is also funded by a $500,000 block grant approved in 2004 and has received as much as $150,000 from the housing commission in past years.

The city requested $60,000 for the project from $2.5 million in HOME Repair Opportunity, or HeRO, funds allocated to outstate Missouri. The city also received $100,000 of the $102,000 it requested from $2.5 million of HeRO funds set aside for DREAM Initiative cities.

Homeowners living in the areas designated for help from the DREAM, or Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, Initiative were given information about the program when the first funding was available last year, Williams said. Five homes were selected last year and this year's money means another five homeowners will be eligible for up to $20,000 in assistance.

Submitted photoA home at 422 S. Benton St. was rehabilitated under the DREAM Initiative. This photo shows the home before the work was done.

All of the homes in either the DREAM areas or the Jefferson-Bloomfield area must be occupied by their owners. The income limits for assistance range from $31,550 for a single person to $59,550 for a household of eight, Williams said.

While the Jefferson-Bloomfield area may seem small, there were a high number of substandard homes with lower-income residents when the project was designed, Williams said. "When we leave the area, we will have made all the corrections with housing rehabilitation and street, curb, gutter and water improvements," he said. "The majority of homes will be upgraded, the infrastructure will be updated and we don't have to go back in there."

The city also has a program to provide down-payment assistance of up to $5,000 for people interested in buying the homes, Williams said.

The tax credit program helps finance new construction or renovation of an existing building for use as low- or moderate-income housing. In Cape Girardeau, the tax credits helped build West Court Manor on South West End Boulevard in 2007 and is being used to renovate the former Schultz School, 101 S. Pacific St., into apartments for the elderly.

MACO Development Co. LLC, the owner of West Court Manor, will build the Perryville project, which will be known as Sycamore Village Apartments.

Over 10 years, MACO will receive $7.2 million in state and federal tax credits for construction. A builder typically sells the tax credits to investors to finance the project, said Kathryn Watts, commission spokeswoman.

MACO's project manager did not return a call seeking comment on when the apartments would be available for occupancy.

Two private Cape Girardeau agencies, the Community Caring Council and Vision House of Cape Girardeau, received Missouri Housing Trust Fund grants of $49,500 and $43,000, respectively, to assist people facing homelessness or in need of rental assistance.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642