Charlestown council president calls agency’s refusal to fund housing projects ‘callous’
Providence Journal | April 15, 2014 01:00 AM | By W. Zachary Malinowski Journal Staff Writer bmalinow@providencejournal.com
The president of the Charlestown Town Council is furious with Rhode Island Housing for subsidizing a 20-unit housing project for the elderly in Pawtucket, but refusing to help Charlestown develop 35 affordable family and senior housing units in Shannock Village and ChurchWoods.
Thomas B. Gentz, council president, learned last week about the $3.8-million project, Keats Garden, at 115 Manton St., in Pawtucket. Rhode Island Housing has agreed to provide the project with $470,000.
Construction is set to begin in May.
“I’m shocked,” Gentz said. “It just shows a certain callousness against Charlestown. Our mission is simple. We want to produce affordable housing for our community. I’m not happy.”
The plans for affordable housing in Charlestown have been in the works for more than seven years. In 2006, the town became the first community in the state to approve a $1-million bond to develop 24 senior housing rental units at ChurchWoods and 11 affordable family units, including one for special needs, in Shannock Village.
In August 2012, Rhode Island Housing notified Charlestown officials that both projects were “eligible as one project,” for funding. Six months later, the housing agency reversed course and said, “Rhode Island Housing is unable to provide financing for the development of age-restrictive housing.”
Charlestown was seeking $4.8 million from Rhode Island Housing to complete the work that involved land acquisition, construction, engineering and legal and architectural costs. Gentz said the town spent about $100,000 on preliminary work to get the project going before it was shot down by Rhode Island Housing.
Last summer, Gentz sent a strongly worded letter to Richard H. Godfrey, executive director of Rhode Island Housing, expressing his outrage over the agency’s failure to support the town’s efforts to build affordable and senior housing.
“On behalf of the residents of Charlestown, we wish to bring to your attention our frustration and outrage over the callous and reprehensible positions taken by senior Rhode Island Housing staff during their review of two low-income projects in our community …,” he wrote.
On Friday, in response to the announcement of funding for Keats Garden in Pawtucket, Gentz fired off an email to Godfrey.
“I am confused,” he wrote. “You deny funding for ChurchWoods’ 24 senior units and fund (senior) units elsewhere? You owe Charlestown an explanation.”
Godfrey responded to Gentz, saying that Keats Garden is one of the last funded projects in the nation under the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 program. He said that for decades, the program provided funds for housing projects for the elderly with annual rental subsidies. That ended, he said, two years ago and there is little hope that the program will resume in the near future.
“We had hoped that 202 funds would be available for ChurchWoods, but Congress has suspended the program,” Godfrey wrote.
Bill Gordon, an affordable housing development consultant in Providence, has worked closely with The Blackstone Valley Development Corp., the real estate development arm of The Arc of Blackstone Valley, which works with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The organization secured financing for Keats Garden. He said that the lion’s share of the project — $3,280,000 — comes from the 202 program. He said that the $470,000 from Rhode Island Housing covers the rest.
Rhode Island Housing officials have said that the state has experienced substantial cutbacks in housing assistance, reaching about $100 million over the past six years.
Michael V. Milito, Rhode Island Housing’s deputy assistant director, said that Pawtucket had been successful in securing the HUD 202 funding, while in Charlestown, “unfortunately, HUD ended the program.” He said that his agency cannot afford to allocate $4.8 million for the project in South County.
“It’s not a feasible deal,” he said.
On Twitter: @billmalinowski