Nonprofits to buy, fix up housing
City may help pay for upgrades to Parramore affordable units
Scores of affordable-housing units in Parramore are in line for sweeping renovations, bringing some in line with city code and improving conditions for low-income families who live there.
Whether city and community redevelopment agency funds will be used to assist in the estimated $2 million in work is the next question.
Last month, the Parramore Asset Stabilization Fund — a combination of three nonprofits — closed a deal for the 83 units stretching from near Colonial Drive south to Gore Street for more than $8 million. The units, comprised of apartments, duplexes and homes, sit on 44 properties.
Now city officials will weigh if they want to contribute $750,000 — $250,000 in community redevelopment agency funds and $500,000 from the city code lien fund — to renovate the units with upgrades that could include new roofs, kitchens, floors and more.
If the deal is approved by the City Council, officials said it will keep the units affordable for decades to come.
“I think as Parramore continues to thrive and be revitalized, these kinds of partnerships really secure the future of the indigenous people remaining in Parramore with qual-
ity affordable housing,” Commissioner Regina Hill said. “I think this is a huge win for the people of Parramore.”
After 10 years, the Parramore Asset Stabilization Fund plans to sell the units to the Central Florida Land Trust, a regional fund aimed at acquiring real estate to stave off gentrification, said Mark Brewer, CEO of the Central Florida Foundation. The foundation along with the Florida Community Loan Fund and New Jersey Community Capital make up the fund.
The trust was formed as home prices spiked in neighborhoods near the UCF and Valencia College downtown campus set to open in August.
The units belonged to Philip Cowherd, who was one of the largest landowners in Parramore. Cowherd couldn’t be reached for comment on the sale, which comes as Central Florida battles an affordable-housing shortage. More than 40,000 names are on waiting lists for rental assistance in Orlando. A study released last week by the United Ways of Florida indicated that about 46 percent of families in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties struggle to meet basic needs.
City officials said the ability to preserve so many units, without raising rents, is what prompted the proposal to support financially supporting renovations. Average monthly rents of the purchased units are $661.
“What is really great about this opportunity… we haven’t had the ability to influence the condition of these properties,” said Thomas Chatmon, Downtown Development Board executive director. “The emergence of essentially a consortium of nonprofits gives us the ability to work with an owner who is motivated by different factors than a private for-profit owner.”
The Parramore Asset Stabilization Fund agreed to keep 42 of the units reserved for renters making less than 80 percent of the average area median income and agreed not to increase rents more than 2 percent annually over the first decade.
Officials also said the deal could offer long-term stability, with the fund offering 12-month leases to residents, where many currently live month-to-month.
“As you see rising rents with declining quality, that’s one of the things that creates a gentrification problem,” Brewer said, citing UCF and Valencia’s downtown campus at Creative Village, plus other development projects boosting property values nearby.
Hill was initially concerned the deal didn’t provide security for the units after the initial decade and lobbied the Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board to allow the city the right of first refusal if the trust couldn’t afford to purchase the properties.
The board agreed and last week the two sides were negotiating that language into the agreement.
“It left a gray area where all of those properties could be sold for market rate,” Hill said. “I think with this partnership… helps circumvent true gentrification and support revitalization and responsible growth.”
With the properties residing within the community redevelopment area, and money collected from liens placed on delinquent properties generally used for renovating and rehabbing properties, the city financial sources are appropriate, economic development director Brooke Bonnett said.
The lien fund was recently used to demolish blighted properties on Mercy Drive and Orange Center Boulevard.
The sale closed in January, with renovations planned to begin in March. Should renters need to be relocated for a few days for more major projects, the fund will find hotel accommodations.
The council is expected to consider the deal Feb. 18.
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