Columbia affordable housing leaders discuss Cullimore project
Leaders in Columbia’s push for affordable housing discussed plans for ten new homes for central city.
The Columbia Community Land Trust plans to take over 10 homes built on North Eighth Street next year. The city of Columbia bought the land last year to add to the affordable housing stock in town. The project is named after Dan Cullimore, a founding member of the land trust who died in 2017 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
The land trust board met with the city’s Housing and Community Development Commission Tuesday night to discuss the project. It’s the first such joint meeting of the groups this year, and first meeting the Housing and Community Development Commission will hold under its new name. The Columbia City Council changed the commission’s name from the Community Development Commission at its Monday meeting.
Housing Programs Manager Randy Cole said that the land trust will pay a construction company to build four homes. Various other organizations, such as nonprofits, will build the other six. Job Point, Central Missouri Community Action and Habitat for Humanity have previously built homes, then donated them to the land trust when sold.
Cole said each home will cost about $175,000 to $185,000 to build. He said the land trust will also perform some improvements to the area of Eighth Street to handle the stormwater runoff, a request Cole said neighbors to the property asked for.
The HCDC recommended the city council approve spending $34,650 in council surplus funds for the Cullimore project. Commission members felt the project would be a good place to spend the excess funds the council gave them earlier this year.
The update comes one month after a different city commission released focus group results that show residents thought housing was the most critical issue facing Columbia in the next five years. The report said a lack of affordable housing and poor quality of the housing options available were among the housing complaints raised by participants.
