Columbia Housing Authority seeks state funds for more apartment rehabs

The Columbia Housing Authority will authorize the submission of an application for state funding Tuesday.

“This is pretty perfunctory,” said Phil Steinhaus, Columbia Housing Authority CEO. “It’s just something we have to do as part of the application process.”

CHA is applying for 9 percent low-income housing tax credits to help fund an $8.6 million renovation project for the Providence Walkway Apartments.

“These units are over 50 years old, and they’re not up to code anymore,” Steinhaus said.

Steinhaus said the units are not up to electrical code, have cast iron plumbing systems and lack insulation. In CHA’s recent renovation of the Bryant Walkway Apartments, crews also found termite damage and wood rot and Steinhaus imagines those will come up again at Providence Walkway.

The application is due to the Missouri Housing Development Commission by Sept. 27 and a decision on funding will be made in December.

“After that, it will take about nine months to close on the financing and construction plans,” Steinhaus said. “That puts us in September 2020 and from there construction should take about two years.”

CHA plans not to fill those apartments as residents move out ahead of the construction, but anyone still living at Providence Walkway when construction begins will be relocated during the work and have the option to return to a new apartment when the work is done.

If CHA isn’t awarded the funding, Steinhaus said the project would be pushed back and CHA would apply for the funding again next year.

The project would renovate 34 apartments. To date, the housing authority has renovated 597 of its 717 public housing units.