Ground Broken on New Low-income Housing Site

Officials at the ground breaking

An abandoned city park on Elrod Street will be transformed into low-income housing for the elderly in about six months.

The city of Cleveland and Douglas Cherokee Economic Authority Inc., a Morristown-based community action agency, were awarded a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant for more than $1.1 million which will be used to build decent, affordable housing for very low-income citizens in Cleveland.

The homes are being built under the corporate name of Riverton Homes.

HUD Supervisory Project Manager Kim Cox, of Knoxville, said each housing development must be built as a separate corporation.

"If one housing development fails, then it doesn't drag the rest of the company down with it," he said.

The grant is divided into two parts. The first is a $948,500 capital advance to construct 11 one-bedroom units on the corner of Elrod and 9th Street S.E. Each unit will be 570 square feet. The complex will be called Park Place Apartments.

Cox said the grant was competitive and the Park Place Apartments project was chosen from among 37 applications from East Tennessee. The award was based on several elements including application quality, need, access to medical care and past performance of the applicant.

"They know we can do a lot work on a little bit of money," Riverton Homes CEO Ray McElhaney said. "We can stretch a dollar."

The second part of the grant is approximately $154,500 in rent subsidies over the first five years. Tenants will pay 30 percent of their adjusted incomes as rent, according to Cox. To be eligible for assistance, a household must be classified as "very low income," which means an income less than 50 percent of the area median. The minimum age for residency is 62.

Park Place will be the fourth Douglas Cherokee project in Cleveland. Two are on White Street and a third development, Stanford Place Apartments, is on Bower Lane.

Groundbreaking on Park Place was expected to be in the spring of 2006 and be completed by January 2007.

The City Council declared the property surplus in 2004. Douglas Cherokee's bid of $28,629 was accepted by the City Council in June 2004, contingent on Douglas Cherokee receiving HUD funding.

A second phase will consist of 20 units and is tentatively named Park Place Annex.

The architect is David Arnold of Ken Ross Architects of Johnson City. The builder is Joseph Construction Co., of Sevierville. Ernie Tullock is the project manager.
Taken from article in the October 4th Cleveland Daily Banner by David Davis