St. Joe Housing Authority sets sights on new 30-unit housing project to address critical needs

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- The St. Joseph Housing Authority is focusing its efforts on a new housing project they hope will address key needs in affordable, workforce and senior housing.

With roughly 3.5 acres of land now ripe for housing development following the removal of more than a dozen blighted mobile homes across from their office at 2811 S. 36th St., the SJHA is envisioning multiple possibilities as they put a team together to select a design firm and developer.

"We have the authority to build 30 new units within our budget allocation through HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)," said Jeff Penland, executive director of SJHA. "We really want to partner with a developer that can come in and we feel we've got enough property and land available in this acquisition to maybe build 50 to 60 units."

He said while the immediate focus is developing 30 units for affordable housing, the larger vision is to do a combination of mixed housing development that provides options for other areas of need like workforce and senior housing.

A six-month timeline is expected for planning before SJHA establishes an official date for breaking ground. 

"We'll design that keeping in mind all the additional phases down the road to develop additional housing sections," Penland said. "Together we can also create some nice walkable green space between us and the surrounding community, like Walmart."

SJHA hopes the project is the first of many as they expand their efforts to address growing needs for both housing availability and housing assistance. 

Troubling signs of housing needs in St. Joseph

The SJHA currently has a waiting list of around 400 people seeking housing assistance through their tenant voucher program, a HUD-funded program that offers critical housing assistance for hundreds of residents. 

Those who qualify are eligible to receive housing assistance based on 30% of their income, a fraction of overall housing costs, including rising prices for utilities.  

But the challenge SJHA often encounters now is even if someone qualifies for rental or housing assistance -- for example just a one-bedroom property -- a shortage of available housing means it could be months before they find a qualified place.

"We have an allocation of around 1000 tenant-based vouchers each year and we're about 93% occupied. We have 40 approved vouchers on the street for people looking for housing,” Penland said.”But sometimes that wait could be up to a year plus. We just don't have enough to go around.”

An infill housing study commissioned last year by the City of St. Joseph and the Chamber of Commerce found significant gaps in properties for low, moderate and above moderate income homeowners, as well as a large number of properties in poor condition.

According to the study, the city has just 400 rental units to accommodate more than 15,000 households in St. Joseph that cite affordable rents as being between $1,100 and $1,700 for middle income.

"The biggest statistic that stands out is the lack of clean quality rental properties. Our community has a lot of rental properties compared to homeowners," Penland said. "We have a lot of out-of-town owners that might not take care of their property."

In light of the study, city officials, housing groups and economic development partners have drastically heightened efforts to attract new housing projects with the use of tax abatements, reimbursements and other tools to help compete with other municipalities for developers.

The issue has become one of the city's top priorities, particularly as the risk grows for continued population decline in St. Joseph because of it. 

Penland and other SJHA officials, many of whom sit on other groups like the Housing Task Force as well, have taken increased steps to approach the issue from a variety of angles.  

“We’re trying to help people improve their situation, to become more self-sufficient and maybe eventually get somebody off of housing assistance,” Penland said. 

The agency launched a new community health director position last October, led by Donna Wilson, to do exactly that. 

Wilson works directly with tenants to learn about their situations, providing support and connecting them with resources to improve their quality of life if needed, from transportation and health-related assistance to grocery shopping, education and other services.

Additionally, Penland said SJHA is actively working on a new initiative that would offer transportation for doctor's visits and grocery shopping for those in their public housing units.

"A lot of our 300-plus population here in Pleasant Heights public housing, the majority of them don't have transportation,” he said.