TheTimesTribune.com, Corbin, KY

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October 27, 2009

Housing Authority: Corbin East project could benefit town

The Housing Authority of Corbin Board of Commissioners wants to see additional affordable housing units built in our city, and the Corbin Independent School owns a vacant building that could be renovated into affordable housing units.

The Housing Authority is the municipal entity with the responsibility of providing decent affordable housing to Corbin residents. We were established in 1965 and manage 182 units on four properties including the former city hall building known as the Cooper-Heath Apartments on Main Street. All of our properties are well maintained and are a valuable asset to the city.

Do we really need more affordable housing in our city? At a recent school board meeting, it was stated that 75 percent of Corbin Primary students participate in the free or reduced lunch program. Wow, pretty good indicator that we have low-income families in Corbin, so where do they live? Well, we have 50 or more eligible applicants on our waiting list for an apartment nearly all the time. As a community, we must find ways to see that our city has adequate housing choices for our citizens.

The Housing Authority Board of Commissioners accepts the responsibility to meet the housing need and wants to develop more units. To develop additional units, we would require grant funding which requires the grant applicant to have control of the property at the time the grant application is submitted.

So why doesn’t the Housing Authority just purchase East School building? Because we do not have the funds to purchase property, but we are an eligible entity that is willing to make application for federal funding to renovate a vacant building.

What I think is important to keep in perspective is:

1. There is a huge liability that the school board is exposed to in the abandoned school building. That liability grows everyday it sits there. The Housing Authority would relieve that liability by rehabilitating the building into new housing.

2. The largest value of the property is in the corner portion of the tract, which is the portion of the property that the school board would be able to sell when they partition off the building and transfer that tract to the housing authority.

3. The rehabilitation of the existing building would increase the value of the corner tract, for sale by the school board. The school board would realize a substantial income for their use when selling that corner and the housing project would increase that value.

4. According to local authorities, the existing building may lie partially in a flood way — a substantial problem that adds cost to any potential private development. Any retail use needs to be at grade — something not possible for construction in the flood way. Since the existing building is elevated and any new additions for housing would also be elevated, that is not a problem for the housing authority project. Accessibility would be accomplished by an elevator for the multi-story housing.

5. Rehabilitation of the existing building would preserve a significant part of local history, provide new state of the art housing for lower income residents and provide some green space and a park-like setting along the Master Street corridor; a street that is becoming all too dense with suburban-style retail developments.

The rehabilitation of East School, and the development of new housing on that site, would do only positive things for the citizens of Corbin, the Corbin Independent School and the Corbin Housing Authority. We hope that the public can have a true picture of the potential this project has for the community.

Dora Mobley,

Executive Director

Housing Authority of Corbin

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