$2M award for Dayton housing project

The state grant will pay for the renovation of a West Dayton apartment complex.

The state on Wednesday awarded a $2 million loan for the rehabilitation of a rundown apartment complex in West Dayton, preserving an important source of affordable housing in the community, local officials said.

The funding, approved by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, will help renovate the Whitmore Arms, a five-building complex located at 247 Almond Ave.

The 40 garden-style apartments are more than four decades old and lack many of today’s standard amenities, such as modern window fixtures, kitchens and bathrooms.

The roughly $7.1 million improvement project will rehab the units and will install new HVAC and electrical systems in the buildings that are energy efficient. Developers also will construct a new community building that offers a meeting room, restrooms, management space and laundry area.

“We’ll be breathing entirely new life into every one of the units, and they’ll all be completely redone,” Adam Blake, vice president of housing for County Corp, a private, nonprofit group that purchased the property.

Whitmore Arms provides housing to very low-income residents. But the families were at risk of losing their housing.

The condition of the 40 units has severely deteriorated over the years, because the out-of-town owner did not pay for needed repairs and maintenance, officials said.

The apartment complex would be in truly deplorable shape if not for property manager, Joe Singleton, who worked hard to keep it up and running, sometimes even paying for improvements on his own dime, Blake said.

On Wednesday, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency Board approved a $2 million loan to help renovate the property.

The improvement project would not be viable without state assistance, including the loan and affordable housing tax credits, officials said.

County Corp is the property owner. Oberer Residential Construction is the development partner. And Greater Dayton Construction will handle the rehab work.

Construction on the project should begin in December and wrap up by next summer.

Other funding for the project comes from a private-public partnership that includes the city of Dayton and Oberer.

The Whitmore units will be modernized and the amenities will be added or updated.

And the new community center will create a gathering place for residents as well as an area to host after-school programming for children who live at the complex, Blake said.

“At the end of the day, they’ll have safe housing that’s affordable to live in, because of the reduced utility costs,” Blake said.

Whitmore Arms residents have received low-income housing vouchers that will allow them to relocate anywhere in the continental United States, if they choose. About three-fourth of families are expected to leave, but if they stay, they will have first priority for the renovated units.

The project should lead to adding 40 new housing vouchers to the community, officials said.

Dayton’s need for affordable housing is sizable considering median incomes have stagnated for decades and many residents are forking over more than 30 percent of their income on housing expenses, said Aaron Sorrell, Dayton’s director of planning and community development.

Some rental housing in Dayton is too old and beat up to have any chance of saving, he said.

But County Corp and Oberer stepped in and helped save a troubled but viable property from going under because of its owner’s neglect, he said.

“We have a shortage of quality, affordable housing,” he said. “We have a large number of obsolete units … but our policy and the county’s is to preserve affordable housing when possible.”

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