Senior housing gets help

Jenny Marder

The City Council agreed Monday to give the city-owned Emerald Cove

senior citizens’ housing project $500,000 to make some badly needed

repairs to the rundown low-income housing complex. The council also

approved the first sizeable rent increase since the center opened 19

years ago.

“We have been unable to make the most basic repairs,” said Amy

Bodek, the city’s real estate manager. “We have to scramble to

provide enough money to replace a washer/dryer, to replace a carpet,

to replace a heater.”

One of the city’s long-term goals for the property is to spruce it

up and stabilize rents to ultimately sell it to a nonprofit

organization or a private body that would be better equipped to

maintain it, Bodek said.

Rental rates for the affordable housing complex are significantly

lower than federal standards, and the revenue generated from rent is

not enough to properly operate the housing project, Bodek said. Every

time a repair is needed, the management company has to tell the city

that it lacks money for the repair and the city has to scrape for

funds, often draining money from the General Fund’s Community

Services budget.

The rent has seen little increase over the years because the city

has supported protecting the rates for the residents, said Rita

Collins, property manager for Emerald Cove.

“They had a humanitarian goal,” she said. “But it means that money

typically available to maintain a property doesn’t exist here.”

Raising the rent, combined with the money appropriated from the

city, will add a cushion to its account and allow the city to make a

dent in repairs, Bodek said.

Over the next six months, the management company and the city will

thoroughly inspect the property and prioritize the things that need

to be fixed. Needed improvements include repairing termite-damaged

balconies and replacing utility doors, a leaky roof and the sprinkler

system. Cosmetic improvements such as replacing carpets and

repainting will also be high on the list.

“It needs repair real bad,” said Lucy Avila, 91, who has been

living in Emerald Cove for 18 years. “It needs a lot of little

improvements. It needs new fencing and painting, and they need to fix

the windows soon. And I need a new rug.”

The city’s objective in building the Emerald Cove senior housing

complex in 1984 was to provide affordable housing units for senior

citizens with restricted incomes. The 164-unit complex consists of 32

studio apartments, 132 one-bedroom units and a central recreation

building grouped into nine two-story buildings.

Rent averages $323 per month for a studio and $363 for a

one-bedroom unit, which is hundreds of dollars lower than the federal

standard set for very-low-income and low-income affordable housing

units.

The allowable federal standard for very- low-income housing is

$624 for a studio and $716 for a one-bedroom unit, which means the

city is charging rents that are $216 to $419 per month lower than the

very-low-income rents set by federal standards, and $402 to $571 per

month lower than the allowable low-income rents.

“All added up, in one year, we’re losing $600,000 in rent

potential,” Bodek said.

While rent will be raised to federal standards for newcomers

starting in April, rent increases for current tenants will only vary

slightly over the years.

“The main way to recapture value is as tenants vacate,” said David

Biggs, director of Economic Development for the city.

The majority of the tenants support the new plans, Collins said.

More than 80 of Emerald Cove’s tenants signed a letter expressing

support for the annual 2% rent increase and the city’s efforts to

find money for improvements, she said.

But not all residents approve of the hike in rents.

“I’m against the rent if they raise it.” Avila said. “When I came

here, we were told that the place was built just for seniors, and

they wouldn’t raise the rent.”

She was glad, however, that the money made on raised rents would

go toward repairs.

“I agree with that because we need a lot of things here,” she

said.

The city has looked into selling Emerald Cove, but concluded that

it’s not an option at this time, since rent could skyrocket upon the

sale of the property.

“As a government entity, we have to balance the desire for a lot

of cash with a responsibility to the residents,” Bodek said.

Nonprofit organizations and private groups are often better

equipped to own and operate these types of projects, Biggs said,

because they can access financing that cities can’t. They can also

outside of the political process, as they are not an elected body.

The city is now looking into acquiring funding from the County of

Orange Housing Authority, known as “Section 8 vouchers,” that would

make up the difference in the old rent and the new rent if the

property were to be sold.

“We’re exploring the options of using the Section 8 vouchers to

get rents to that higher value,” Biggs said.

Staff will return to City Council in a year to report their

progress with the housing authority.