[Archived] HUD Secretary Cuomo Announces $6.7 Million Grant to Alexandria to Redevelop Aging Public Housing in Housing in Old Town North


News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:	Tuesday, September 1, 1998
Contact:	Tom Brannan, Assistant City Manager, (703) 838-4300; Peter E. Smirniotopoulos, Program Administrator, Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, (703) 549-7115, ext. 231

HUD Secretary Cuomo Announces $6.7 Million Grant to Alexandria to Redevelop Aging Public Housing in Housing in Old Town North

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced the award of a $6.7 million ($6,716,250) grant to the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (AHRA) to redevelop the Samuel Madden Homes (Downtown) public housing in north Old Town.

The grant is part of HUD's nationwide HOPE VI funding program that is replacing decaying public housing with new housing and helping residents get education, training and jobs to become self-sufficient.

The grant announcement came at a news conference today at Alexandria City Hall by HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Elinor Bacon and attended by Senator Charles Robb, Alexandria Mayor Kerry J. Donley, Alexandria City Manager Vola Lawson, Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) Chairman Myke Reid and ARHA Executive Director William M. Dearman.

The $6.7 million grant will be used to assist AHRA in the redevelopment of 100 units of aging public housing at Samuel Madden Homes. In June 1997, the ARHA

Board of Commissioners approved North Village L.L.C. as the preferred developer for the project, which involves redevelopment of the 4.15-acre site. The North Village proposal provides for the construction of 198 units (145 townhouses and 53 manor house units) including 146 for-sale units and 52 public housing units. The remaining 48 ARHA units will be developed or located at scattered sites throughout the City to be determined later.

The City and ARHA are committed by City Council Resolution 830 to replace all 100 units of public housing.

ARHA's receipt of the $6.7 million in federal HOPE IV funding will enable the Housing Authority to assist with redevelopment of the site and the development and/or acquisition of the 48 off-site replacement units. Additional funding will come from the sale of the site and from low-income housing tax credits, if available. City Council endorsed ARHA's latest HOPE IV grant application in June 1998 and designated $424,000 in City Housing Trust Fund monies for 14 affordable housing units (ten on the redeveloped site and four at the Reynolds Street replacement housing location). Approximately $214,000 of Trust Fund grant will be used to help write down the sales prices for five three-bedroom on-site units and $210,000 to provide up to $15,000 per unit in homeownership assistance for each of the 14 income-eligible moderate-income purchasers on the two sites.

Although ARHA has designed North Village as its preferred developer, ARHA must comply with a HUD requirement that it offer a resident organization the opportunity to buy the property. However, if the property is sold to a resident organization, it will no longer be eligible for HOPE IV funding.

HUD is awarding a total of $507 million in highly competitive grants to 22 cities under the HOPE VI public housing transformation program. The grant award to Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority is the only one in the Washington metropolitan region and one of only two in Virginia.