Ozanam Place Seeks to Acquire Affordable Units

Ozanam Place, Inc. has gained support from the City Council for its effort to maintain the city's stock of affordable housing by acquiring and rehabilitating 18 rental units in Lakeport. The Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the project, called Lakeport Commons.

With support from the city, Ozanam Place will be seeking the sponsorship of the Belknap County Commissioners when they meet today.

William Johnson, President of Ozanam Place, sought the endorsement of the council at the request of the commissioners, who he has asked to sponsor Ozanam Place's application for a Community Development Block Grant. Ozanam Place is also pursuing an affordable housing grant and loan from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, through the auspices of Meredith Village Savings Bank.

Ozanam Place is a non-profit corporation that provides transitional housing and supportive services to single-parent families who are without homes or at risk of becoming homelessness. "The development of Lakeport Commons," Johnson said "would be our first venture as an owner and landlord."

The apartments, 15 on Elm Street and 3 on Fore Street, are owned by Richard Allen, who Johnson described as "a landlord with a social conscience." Allen welcomed the transaction with Ozanam Place, Johnson said, "to make sure that the landlord who succeeds him will be as caring a landlord as he has been." Five of the current tenants receive rent subsidies through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 program and 17 have incomes of half the regional median income or less.

"Together with Mr. Allen we have written to all the tenants to reassure them about the transfer of the property," Johnson said. "We do not intend to evict anyone and we do not intend to raise anyone's rent. In fact, we hope to lower the rents," he said. Johnson said that as units become vacant, they would be let to families Ozanam serves. "There will be no change in the use of the buildings," Johnson told the Council, "only a change in ownership, " adding that he expected the properties would remain on the city's tax rolls.

Johnson estimates the cost of the project at approximately $880,000, of which $710,000 represents the cost of acquiring the properties. The balance , some $140,000, would be applied to rehabilitating and modernizing the buildings. "The total cost will depend on how we are able to finance the project," Johnson said. "We are seeking optimal financing with minimal debt service so that we can hold or reduce the rents."

Johnson acknowledged that in applying for a Community Development Block Grant, Ozanam Place would be pursuing the same source of funds as the Laconia Area Community Land Trust was seeking to apply to develop affordable housing units on the Union Avenue Vernitron site, a project the Council also endorsed at the same meeting. However, Johnson and Linda Harvey agreed that both projects could be funded within the caps of the Community Development Block Grant Program. The city's cap is $500,000 and the county's cap is $500,000 and, since the two caps do not count against one another, there is nothing to prohibit awarding grants to two projects in the same community. City Manager Eileen Cabanel said the two projects are only competing against each other in the same sense that all applicants for CDGB grants seek funds from the same source.