NSB hopes for tax credit award to fund phase II of Greenlawn Manor affordable housing

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — When the Greenlawn Manor project is completed by early 2024, it will give senior residents a chance at affordable rental housing.

Now the city is hoping to start the project’s second phase, which aims to help even more families in need.

The City Commission Tuesday approved a commitment to $460,000 in city funds toward phase II of the Greenlawn Manor project, which is temporarily being called “Westside phase II,” according to Teresa Pope, executive director for the New Smyrna Beach Housing Authority.

The entire project will cost around $27 million, and a major part of the funding will have to come from a state tax credit award, which the city did not receive last year due to a "competitive selection process," according to the city.

Phase II will consist of three three-story buildings with 24 units per building for a minimum of 72 multifamily units. The plan is to divide one-, two- and three-bedroom units equally among the 72.

Originally, fewer three-bedroom units were planned, but according to Pope, the plan changed because “we do have a need for bigger families.”

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The project will be located at 500 Brooks St., just south of where the Greenlawn Manor will be.

The city will relocate the residents living in the approximately 40 units in that area once the demolition and phase II construction begins. Residents will receive housing vouchers as part of the city's Section 8 voucher program, which is the same process used with residents of Greenlawn Terrace before Greenlawn Manor began.

Same funding process required for phase II

Pope said that Greenlawn Manor is coming along well, with the first of the three floors already completed. With a total of 80 senior living units, it is expected to be complete between the end of this year and January 2024.

The waitlist for the project, which can include up to 160 people, already has 115 signed up, Pope said.

The city’s Housing Authority partnered with Miami-based firm Fortis Development to develop the project and will do the same for the next phase.

But to get phase II off the ground, the city must secure the necessary funding.

The entire project will cost around $27 million, and a major part of that funding comes from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s (FHFC) Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) — approximately $20 million.

Other funding sources include permanent loans and a contribution from the county’s State Housing Initiative Program (SHIP), which “provides funds to local governments as an incentive to create partnerships that produce and preserve affordable homeownership and multifamily housing for very low-, low- and moderate-income families,” according to the county.

The FHFC rejected the city's first application for Greenlawn Manor in 2018, and the city was only able to move forward when it received the tax credit the following year.

The same story is happening now for phase II. After last year's application was rejected, the Housing Authority will submit this year’s application on Sept. 12.

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In addition to the local match of $460,000, Pope hopes the fact that several public housing units were flooded and damaged by Tropical Storm Ian last year will factor into the FHFC’s decision; however, Pope doesn’t know whether this will be part of the selection criteria.

One of these areas was Live Oak Homes, which consists of 40 units of public housing and is located about a mile south of Greenlawn and Brooks streets, where Greenlawn Manor and phase II will be.

“They were all flooded during Ian, and now the property is abandoned,” Pope said. “We are hoping that phase II will be able to help some of those folks that we had to relocate during the hurricane.”

Pope added that she hopes that other parts of the state affected by last year’s storms will also get some attention, including the Fort Meyers area.

'Opportunity' to continue the work on affordable housing

The city will continue to seek the necessary funding to redevelop the area for phase II in case the tax credit award doesn’t come through this year.

Christopher Edwards, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency director, said the he is confident that the city will be able to secure the tax credit award as it did for Greenlawn Manor.

There is a need for approximately 12,000 affordable housing units in Volusia County, Edwards told city commissioners Tuesday.

“New Smyrna Beach has always been touted as one of the leading communities in the area of affordable housing development,” Edwards said. “This is an opportunity for us to continue to be a model for the other cities in the county to try to address the ongoing challenges of affordable housing.”

Pope said the lack of affordable rentals for families, especially on the city’s westside, has been a difficult issue.

“We have people going to Daytona Beach and Holly Hill because they cannot afford the rental housing in New Smyrna Beach,” Pope said. “We have students who are raised here, their families are here, their support systems are here, but they cannot find affordable housing.”

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If all goes according to plan, the city expects phase II to be completed by December 2025.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NSB affordable housing project Greenlawn Manor readies for phase II