MANSFIELD — The timeline on a 120-unit affordable housing development in Mansfield will be pushed back another two months, but is still set to break ground in 2025.
The Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority will submit its final application to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency this spring, executive director Steve Andrews said Tuesday.
Andrews told board members Wednesday he planned to submit the final application for the $32 million project this month. He now expects to send the paperwork in March, when the last bit of funding becomes available from the agency’s development partner.
Andrews said the money from Tober Development Company is guaranteed, but isn’t available yet due to a delay with one of Tober’s projects in the Akron area.
Once the final application is submitted, Andrews said it will go through an underwriting process. He expects an approval no later than July.
The $32 million project is being funded with low-income housing tax credits from the OHFA, bond gap financing, MMHA funds and contributions from the city of Mansfield, Richland County Commissioners and Richland County Foundation.
“The funding is already there, we just need to demonstrate that we are a legitimate project and that we qualify, which we do,” Andrews said.
Once the application is approved, the MMHA will close on the deal and begin construction.
The new project will add 120 affordable housing units available to renters of any age. Seventy units will feature two bedrooms; 50 will have three bedrooms.
Most of the units, 102, will be reserved for households earning 60 percent or less of the area’s average median income. The remaining 18 units will be rented to those making 30 percent or less of the average median income.
The buildings will be located east of the existing Turtle Creek Apartments, a senior apartment complex managed by the MMHA.
Andrews said pause on federal grant funding will not impact housing vouchers
The MMHA gets most of its funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — including the money used to pay for housing assistance vouchers.
When the MMHA board met Tuesday morning, Andrews addressed a memo from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to put a pause on all federally-funded financial assistance programs.
(The order was set to take effect on Tuesday at 5 p.m. It was later paused by a federal judge.)
Andrews told board members there are a few housing authority directors across the state who are worried about the fallout, but he isn’t one of them.
“I’m really not fearful for our program, because it would be political suicide for anybody to say ‘We’re just not going to pay landlords across the country this month,” Andrews said. “It would be catastrophic to local economies.”
Andrews said HUD allots around $1 million for the MMHA to pay landlords in Richland County each month.
“Congress is always a couple months ahead, and so we already have funds set aside out of the money that was already allotted and approved by the government to run through February and March,” he told the board.
Wait… what’s this about a pause in federal financial aid?
Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a memo on Monday detailing the temporary pause of federal grants, loans and other financial assistance programs.
The memo required federal agencies perform a “comprehensive analysis” of all federally-funded financial assistance programs to determine whether they align with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders.
The order also required federal agencies to temporarily pause the release of funds that might be impacted by Trump’s executive orders.
A federal judge issued an order temporarily blocking the measure Tuesday afternoon, putting the funding freeze on pause until Feb. 3.