City, county support affordable housing plan
Beyond Shelter CEO Dan Madler speaks to the Minot City Council Monday.
A preliminary rendering shows a concept for Engle Court, a 72-unit affordable housing complex proposed just south of 30th Avenue Northwest and east of 16th Street.
Beyond Shelter CEO Dan Madler speaks to the Minot City Council Monday.
A preliminary rendering shows a concept for Engle Court, a 72-unit affordable housing complex proposed just south of 30th Avenue Northwest and east of 16th Street.
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A plan to replace public housing scattered around Minot with an affordable housing project in northwest Minot gained support from the Minot City Council and Ward County Commission this week.
The city council unanimously approved on Monday the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes request from Minot Housing Authority (MHA) and its developer, Beyond Shelter of Fargo, while the county commission gave consent 3-2 on Tuesday. The request also went to the Minot School Board.
MHA wants to sell 40 houses/duplexes because they are inefficient to operate. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has not been appropriated the money necessary to provide MHA with funding adequate to maintain the properties for the lower income tenants, MHA Executive Director Tom Alexander said.
MHA is working with Beyond Shelter to construct the 72-unit Engle Court to replace the individual housing units and create a greater ability to meet growing demand for affordable housing.
MHA is property-tax exempt but has been making a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to help support government services received. It proposes to continue a PILOT with Engle Court. The PILOT would be for the development only. The land would remain taxed.
Under the 17-year PILOT for Engle Court, the payment would amount to about $237,000, which would be divided among the taxing entities. That is about $198,000 more than entities would receive from the 40 public housing units over the 17 years through the existing PILOT on those properties, explained Dan Madler, CEO with Beyond Shelter.
The individual housing units are expected to be ideal properties for first-time homebuyers and may allow some current tenants to purchase, Madler added. The net benefit to taxing entities would be about $1.4 million in property taxes over 17 years, he said.
County commissioners voting to support the PILOT request were Jim Rostad, Shelly Weppler and Jason Olson. Opposed were John Fjeldahl and Howard "Bucky" Anderson.
"I still have reservations about encumbering the county commission and the city and the school for 17 years. This is a long-term deal," Rostad said. "But yet I see there's a lot of good."
The change in direction from individual units to a complex gave some commissioners pause at a previous meeting on the PILOT request. It also was on the minds of some city council members.
"I like the idea of putting properties back on the tax rolls," council member Stephan Podrygula said. "But I am concerned that we congregate groups of people together and essentially create a de facto ghetto."
For that reason, he said, "I just ask that the management be very tight and things be supervised and the project be kept up to high standards."
"Ideally, it'd be nice if we could provide a single-family home or a duplex or townhome to families," Madler said. "But that's just not financial reality."
Also, he said, a PILOT is the only option for affordable housing projects to be economically viable.
The $24 million development of Engle Court also would involve private investment, create about 109 construction jobs and support about 28 jobs after construction.