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MEMPHIS VETERAN HOUSING FUNDING GRANTED -- "We
emphasize
projects that help people with very low income,
who have
special needs and this met the criteria."
Story here...
http://www.commercialappeal.com/
mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5249404,00.html
Story below:
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Veteran housing funding granted
Alpha Omega will build 7,200-square-feet space containing 10 apartments
By David Flaum
Ten military veterans will get homes near the former defense depot
thanks to grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati and City
of Memphis along with financing from First Tennessee Bank.
The money will go to Alpha Omega Veterans Services, starting with
$484,000 from the home loan bank as part of its affordable housing
program. The city will kick in another $250,000 and First Tennessee
grants, donated land and federal money will make up the rest for the
$942,292 project.
"It's for military veterans in need of permanent housing," said Cordell
Walker, executive director of Alpha Omega. "Most of them have been
through varying stages of our program and have not been able to get
permanent homes, mostly because of income."
The housing is permanent in the sense that vets may live there as long
as they sign leases and pay rent. Other Alpha Omega projects have
six-months to two- years residence limits.
Alpha Omega is an 18-year-old nonprofit that provides services to
veterans -- including those with mental, substance abuse or money
problems.
The agency has a 32-unit, semi-permanent complex in the old officers'
quarters at the former Memphis Defense Depot along with other housing in
midtown and three single-family homes it built in Frayser and sold to
veterans.
The new building will be 7,200 square feet including the 10 apartments,
which will be 240 square feet each with one room, a private bath,
refrigerator and microwave, said Havie McMullen, facilities director.
"They (units) are small so the residents will mingle with other people,"
he said. "The design of this building is to encourage socialization."
The building will have a common kitchen and meeting room on the first
floor, a TV room, library and vending area on the second.
McMullen hopes to break ground for the project in late winter and have
it ready for residents by late next fall.
The grant from the home loan bank is part of its annual outlay of 10
percent of its profits for affordable housing, said John Byczkowski,
communications officer.
"We emphasize projects that help people with very low income (50 percent
or less of the region's median income or $20,000 in Memphis) who have
special needs and this met the criteria," he said. "We've worked with
Alpha Omega in the past and we know they do good work."
The City of Memphis has helped Alpha Omega, too -- for example, on a
32-unit project in Midtown, said Mary-Knox Lanier, administrator of the
homeless and special needs programs.
"We have worked with them pretty extensively on a number of projects in
the past and the outcomes have always been good," Lanier said.
In addition to the grants, First Tennessee will provide cash and bridge
and construction loans. Also, bank employee volunteers will do
landscaping.
The Alpha Omega project was one of two the home loan bank backed locally
in the latest program.
Frayser-Millington North Shelby Mental Health Center will get $1.1
million to put into the $2.3 million, 32-unit North Woods Apartments.
Other federal grants, $500,000 from the City of Memphis and similar help
from First Tennessee as in the Alpha Omega project will pay for the
work.
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Larry Scott
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