Complex to provide housing for homeless Northwest Arkansas veterans
FAYETTEVILLE — Patriot Park, a 60-unit affordable housing development exclusively for veterans, is planned for a long-vacant parking lot that Washington County owns near the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville.
Developers hope the project will effectively end homelessness in Northwest Arkansas among people who served in the military and afford them easy access to the health care they need.
Jim Petty, a Van Buren developer with Strategic Realty, spearheaded the project using the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program as the primary funding source.
Petty recently gave a presentation on the project to the board for the nonprofit development arm of the city’s Housing Authority. The nonprofit, FHA Development, is a management partner on the project. Board members will have seats at the table to make decisions about the project’s development.
Petty said the overall project will cost a little more than $10 million. The tax credit program is covering $8.5 million of the cost, he said, with grants, bank financing and donations accounting for the rest.
Petty received notification of the award a few weeks ago. He described the units as affordable with a capital A. The complex will feature 24, one-bedroom units, 24 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units, as well as a common area for recreation. Service providers will visit the site to help and care for residents, he said.
The units are intended for homeless veterans, low-income veterans and veterans with disabilities, as well as their families, Petty said. Prospective tenants must apply, and qualified applicants with income restrictions will be able to live at Patriot Park on a first-come, first-served basis.
One-bedroom units will range from $295 to $395 monthly; two bedrooms will be $300 to $495; and three-bedroom units will be $320 to $590 per month. Revenue from rent will go toward expenses such as insurance, bills, maintenance, management, tax filing requirements and fees to the state, Petty said.
The average rent in Fayetteville is about $660 for a one-bedroom unit, $776 for two bedrooms and $1,090 for a three-bedroom apartment, according to the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.
Construction should take 12-14 months. A groundbreaking is planned for Sept. 11.
Washington County has owned the 3-acre parking lot since the 1980s. The county will continue to own the property and lease it to the limited liability company associated with the project, Petty said.
Washington County Veteran Services will oversee and manage the complex once it’s built. The office helps veterans and their families file for benefits and disability compensation.
Ben Dykes, a retired U.S. Navy veteran and director of veterans services for the county, said he frequently deals with homeless, disabled and low-income veterans. The location is ideal, he said. The apartments will be within walking distance of the veterans hospital. They also will be centrally located in the city and near a transit route, making the commute to work easier for many veterans, he said.
Patriot Park will be a place where veterans will want to live, rather than just a place where they have to, Dykes said. Veterans share a bond through their service, and simply being around one another will help their quality of life and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, he said.
The regional Continuum of Care, a collection of nonprofit agencies that helps people get out of homelessness or provides services to at-risk individuals and families, has a goal to functionally end veteran homelessness.
The continuum keeps a list of names of people experiencing homelessness in the region. As of Friday, there were 224 people on the list, 31 of whom were veterans.
An official count taken Jan. 28 identified 14 homeless veterans in Benton, Washington, Madison and Carroll counties. However, only those in emergency shelters or transitional housing were counted because of the pandemic, said Pam Hutcheson, the continuum’s executive director. A count Jan. 23, 2020, found 38 homeless veterans.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there are 13,000 veterans in Washington County, 16,000 in Benton County, 800 in Madison County and 2,100 in Carroll County. The estimate for the state is more than 202,000.
The number of veterans in the region experiencing homelessness is an evolving picture, said Steven Mills, chief operating officer of 7 Hills Homeless Center. Although the counts identified a certain number of veterans, several more are at risk of homelessness, he said.
Having Patriot Park’s 60 units exclusively for veterans will set up a system to help get to a “functional zero” in veterans’ homelessness, he said.
“My hope would be that it would be a safety net and allow us to end veteran homelessness,” he said. “If we’ve got 60 units available, I don’t think there’s any reason we wouldn’t be able to accomplish that.”
Developers hope the project will effectively end homelessness in Northwest Arkansas among people who served in the military and afford them easy access to the health care they need.