BNSF homes part of low-income housing plan

The Whitefish Housing Authority is

seeking guidance about how to manage and rehabilitate three BNSF

donated homes in the Railway District. The renovation of these

properties will be part of a five-year plan to help WHA address the

need for affordable rentals in Whitefish.

“A big piece of the five-year plan is

the BNSF homes,” said WHA director SueAnn Grogan. “They are the

bird in hand.”

The housing authority has solicited for

proposals to help evaluate the structural integrity of the vacant

homes. Grogan wants to know if they need to be remodeled or totally

demolished. Two of the small homes on First Street between O’Brien

Avenue and Miles Avenue are in particularly bad shape with their

front doors boarded up. The third house is on the corner of Railway

and O’Brien and its doors are also boarded.

“If the bones are OK, do they just need

paint and carpet or structural changes,” Grogan questions. “How

will owning the three lots aid the housing authority in meeting our

affordable housing goals.”

She said WHA will entertain all

proposals, including the options to rent or redevelop the

properties, or offers for their purchase.

“Whatever final use is decided,” she

said, “it has to support what we do. We create and maintain

affordable housing opportunities.”

The housing authority is struggling to

keep the books balanced in lieu of cuts to federal subsidies and

funding, which was the impetus for creating a five-year plan.

Small housing authorities represent

about 80 percent of all housing agencies in the U.S., but receive

only 10 percent of the public housing and Housing Choice Voucher

funds, according to a report by the Public Housing Authorities

Directors Association.

Mountain View Manor, which opened in

1970 and was WHA’s first project, provides 50 apartments for the

elderly and disabled. Funding for WHA’s public housing has been cut

by about 70 percent since 2009, Grogan said.

WHA is currently looking at

repositioning the status of their public housing. They have

solicited for a consultant to help them decide if Mountain View

Manor should opt out of HUD-assisted housing and move to

project-based contract or project-based voucher programs.

Currently the housing authority owns

the Mountain Manor building.

Grogan says it’s difficult to cover

public housing operations without sufficient federal subsidies

because some tenants can’t afford to pay the amount of rent that is

needed for the authority to break even. The lowest rent paid is $50

a month.

“The want us to act like a business,”

she said, “but you can’t run the books like a business, not with

$50 rent. That is why we need subsidies.”

The deadline was Sept. 19 for

consultants to respond to WHA’s requests for guidance on the BNSF

homes and the five-year plan. Grogan notes that tenants at Mountain

Manor won’t be effected if a repositioning happens.

“We’re looking at the bottom line to

make sure we stick around,” she said.