CINCINNATI METROPOLITAN HOUSING AUTHORITY Senior Designation Plan Approved

918 Pages·2016·39.94 MB·English

by  Emily Cantor

CINCINNATI METROPOLITAN HOUSING
AUTHORITY

Senior Designation Plan

Approved: September 22, 2014

Revised: November 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Central YMCA 2
West Union Square 10
Attachments 18

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CENTRAL YMCA SENIOR APARTMENTS

Project Description

Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority has partnered with the Model Group and Episcopal
Retirement Homes Affordable Living (ERHAL) to create affordable rental units in the building
located at 1105 Elm Street, the Central YMCA. This will involve the comprehensive
rehabilitation of floors 4-9 which are currently vacant but previously contained single room
occupancy units. The resultant development will be comprised of 65 units, 15 of which will be
one bedroom Low Income Public Housing Units. These units are being developed using Low
Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), State Historic Tax Credits, Federal Historic Tax Credits,
and Low Income Public Housing Capital and Replacement Housing Factor Funds. The LIHTCs
were awarded as part of a 9% competition and included a designation of the resultant
development as for persons aged 55 and above.

The renovation of the residential portions of the YMCA building into senior housing began as
discussions between the YMCA and Model Group. The YMCA was seeking opportunities to
repurpose the vacant portions of their building while also renovating their existing facilities.
There is a great need for affordable senior housing in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. Today,
1500 Elm is the only senior designated affordable living option available in the Over the Rhine
neighborhood, and it is not funded with public housing funds. Urban environments are often
conducive to senior living as they are walkable, transportation rich and provide access to many
nearby services and amenities. The Central Parkway YMCA is located near public
transportation, recreation spaces, cultural activities, and health centers and provides a built-in
wellness facility which allows for many beneficial lifestyle activities for seniors. The YMCA in
general has seen a need to serve senior populations with programs geared specifically to their
interests such as Silver Sneakers and others. The symbiotic relationship between the YMCA
facilities and programming and senior residents has proven to be a successful model in other
YMCA buildings. Further, the building will be equipped with elevators and controlled access to
serve the senior population. Our initial research was confirmed in our market study which
supported the need for affordable senior housing in downtown and OTR. Bringing our long-time
partner, Episcopal Retirement Homes, into the project ensures top quality senior housing
management and robust supportive services. The City of Cincinnati has been extremely
supportive of this project as well and agrees that housing in the urban core that allows seniors to
“age-in-place” is a high priority.

Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority is submitting this Senior Designation Plan to
designate 100% of the 15 Public Housing units in this 65 unit development for persons aged 62
and above.

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Table 1: Units to be Designated
Units to be Designated
406 501 510
511 512 606
610 611 612
711 712 811
812 911 912

These units were selected as they are distributed seamlessly into the larger development. The
development overall was funded with Low Income Housing Tax Credits with the designation of
being reserved for persons aged 55 or older. Therefore all the dwelling units in this development
will be elderly and near elderly persons.

Central YMCA Senior Apartments will be managed by Episcopal Retirement Homes Affordable
Living (ERHAL) and they have committed to providing supportive services as outlined in the
attached service plan (Attachment A). The supportive services plan includes nutritional/meal
services, light housekeeping services, transportation, home health referral services, regular
cultural, recreational, social, and health and wellness activities, educational activities, support for
a Resident Council. The facilities are designed to meet the needs of an aged and aging
population. The apartments will meet all code requirements for accessibility or adaptability. As
many units as possible will be designed to accommodate individuals who are wheelchair-bound.
Amenities, including restaurants, medical offices, post office, and other retail establishments are
near the site in Downtown Cincinnati. There is a bus stop directly in front of the building. The
property provides accessible common areas in which the Service Coordinator and the Activity
Coordinator plan activities. Further, there are sitting rooms on each floor, laundry areas, and a
consultation room where a Service Coordinator can discuss private matters or conduct medical
screenings.

Reason for Designating this Development for Seniors

This development was originally determined to be an elderly and near elderly building with the
submission of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit submission. This was because the structure
was most suitable to seniors, the presence of the YMCA in the same building provided a great
deal of service offerings for seniors and the location offered accessibility to services and
amenities for persons without access to transportation, a frequent need in the senior population.

Designating this development as senior at development ensures that no existing renter is
impacted, as the building is currently vacant.

Identification of Groups Consulted and Comments

The following groups were consulted in the planning for this development: the City of
Cincinnati, the YMCA, Episcopal Retirement Community, and Council on Aging. (Please see
support letters in Attachment B). Additionally, Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority held
a meeting on May 19, 2014 with the Jurisdiction-Wide Advisory Board to solicit comments prior
to the 30 day comment period which commenced on June 5, 2014.
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Providing Notice

Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority held a 30 day public comment period from June 5,
2014 to July 6, 2014. Copies of this plan were located at http://www.cintimha.com and at
CMHA’s Administrative Offices located at: 1627 Western Ave. The CMHA Board of
Commissioners provided approval on May 27, 2014.

Profile of Proposed Designated Project in Pre-Designated State

This plan references the creation of new units for the elderly at the Central YMCA. These units
have been vacant for over a decade and therefore no one in the non-designated group is being
displaced. Please see below for key figures in determining the impact.

Table 2: Designation Impact
Element Number
Total Number of Units Currently Available at Central YMCA Senior Apts. 0
Current Occupants of the Project 0
Number of Elderly Families Currently at the Project 0
Number of Non-Elderly Families Currently at the Project 0

Profile of Proposed Project in Designated State

PHA Occupancy Policies and Procedures
The development will be a mixed-finance development and will not be directly controlled or
owned by CMHA. The development will have its own Admissions and Continued Occupancy
Procedures that will be adopted by the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority Board of
Commissioners.

As part of this development proposal, CMHA will ensure that the partnership upholds the
Admissions and Continued Occupancy policies developed by ERHAL to be accepted by CMHA
Board of Commissioners after HUD review and approval. Contained within are policies related
to non-discrimination, reasonable accommodation, and accessible units policy for public
housing. The units will be managed on a site-based waiting list, which will be managed on a
first come/first serve basis for individuals at or below 30% of Area Median Income for 7 units
and 50% of Area Median Income for 8 units. The dwelling units will be fixed within the
development and will be distributed throughout the development.

This development is unlikely to increase minority populations at this location. Within this zip
code, the American Community Survey from 2012 (2012 ACS) estimates that there is a
population of 15,483. The population demographics from the 2012 ACS are summarized in the
tables below. We do not expect that the 15 units of senior Asset Management units or the
additional 50 units of LIHTC elderly and near elderly units will significantly impact
concentrations of minority populations or poverty in this area.

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Table 3: Racial Demographics
Race Population in 45202 Zip Code
White 46.6%
Black or African American 48.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.3%
Asian 1.9%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.0%
Some Other Race 0.7%
Two or More Races 1.9%
Source: 2012 American Community Survey

Table 4: Income Demographics
Household Income Population in 45202 Zip Code
Less than $5,000 8.9%
$5,000 - $9,999 8.5%
$10,000 - $14,999 10.7%
$15,000 – $19,999 5.1%
$20,000 - $24,999 5.2%
$25,000 - $34,999 7.4%
$35,000 - $49,999 9.8%
$50,000 - $74,999 16.1%
$75,000 - $99,999 7.6%
$100,000 - $149,999 9.1%
$150,000 or More 11.6%
Source: 2012 American Community Survey

Waitlist Maintenance
As a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Mixed Finance development, the Central YMCA Senior
Apartments will have their own wait list managed by ERHAL, the property manager. It will be a
first come, first serve and the income qualified individuals 62 and above will the first applicants
that will qualify for the designate public housing units.

Dwelling Unit Assignment
The public housing dwelling units will be fixed and will be assigned to the 15 units listed in the
project description section.

Record-Keeping of Impact
CMHA will not need to monitor the impact on current residents as the property has been vacant
for more than a decade. CMHA will however monitor the waitlist during the plan period to
ensure that the designation of these units does not have a disproportionate effect on families who
would have resided if it had not been designated.

Estimate of Vacancies
The existing LIHTC and federally-subsidized housing in the area has an average vacancy of
3.2% as evidenced in the Market Study. It is expected that this development will experience
vacancies similar to, or below, this vacancy.
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Housing for Non-Elderly
Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority currently manages over 5,000 LIPH units and 16%
of the Heads of Households are seniors. Our LIPH wait list has 36 elderly households and a total
of 6,160 applicants. CMHA does have a wait list preference for elderly and disabled persons.
Further, CMHA administers a Housing Choice Voucher program. Currently we have 10,721
participants of which 1084 (10.11%) participants are elderly. There are also 67 elderly on the
waitlist of 3,426.

The intended elderly designation would include only 15 units. Currently, CMHA experiences an
annual turnover rate of approximately 1200 units. Further, at a 98% occupancy rate, CMHA
would have approximately 100 units available at any given time. Therefore there are
consistently enough units to absorb at least the number of non-elderly families as is planned to be
served by the Central YMCA Senior Apartments.

Fair Housing and Continued Occupancy Policies

Strategy for Addressing Current and Future Needs
In 2012 CMHA commissioned a Housing Study for Hamilton County (Attachment C). This
study identified a lack of sufficient senior housing. In fact, it identified over 54,000 elderly
households with housing problems. This supports a high need for affordable, quality senior
housing.

Table 5: Elderly Housing Problems
The table reproduced here is from
the 2012 Hamilton County
Housing Study and Needs
Analysis Technical Index.

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The City of Cincinnati Consolidated Plan (Attachment D) and its incorporated housing goals
support this development for the elderly. The Plan recognizes that there is a great deal of seniors
in the city of Cincinnati with a housing need (65% of 6364 elderly households) and calls for
supporting developments that serve this population. It states that there are nearly 5 million
elderly persons living in the community at large who need assistance carrying out everyday
activities, and the need is increasing dramatically as the population ages. The number of persons
aged 85 and over is projected to double from 3.3 million to 6.5 million people. Further, the
Neighborhood Plan (Attachment E), adopted by City Council specifically identifies this
development in the planned state as being desirable for neighborhood seniors. Page 93 of the
Consolidated Plan specifically indicates that the City of Cincinnati will continue to support
elderly housing and that the City would benefit from additional housing sources for the elderly1.
The Plan references a 2001 City of Cincinnati Ordinance that indicates the City would approve
expending publically assisted housing for the elderly.2

In further support, the Model Group was required to obtain a market study (Attachment F) for
the proposed location, as part of the competitive LIHTC application. It has been determined that
there is a need for senior housing in the Primary Market Area that this location would be
positioned to meet. The market study mentions the fact that the site is suitable for this type of
development.

The proposed project is located just north of the downtown Cincinnati Central
Business District, in an area that has excellent access to public transit, transit
corridors, and social services, enabling residents’ easy access to both social and
community services. Grocery and pharmacy, major medical center, and
convenience centers are all within 0.5 miles or less of the site. Public safety
services are also in very close proximity to the site. It is notable that very
substantial public/private investments have been made in the Over-the-Rhine
area in recent years. These include $48 million in improvements to Washington
Park, which is located 0.1 mile north of the subject site; $17 million in
improvements to the Findlay Market, the city’s historic public market. A number
of substantial renovations are being conducted in buildings in the immediately
surrounding neighborhood of the site.

In meeting the needs of seniors, it specifically calls out the multitude of amenities nearby as
listed in the table on the next page which was extracted from the Market Study. This does
address a concern of the Jurisdiction Wide Advisory Board. They were concerned that there
were not sufficient amenities to support this as a senior development. The table on the next page
outlines the services and amenities that are near the development. JRAB was also concerned
about transportation but there currently is a bus stop directly in front of the YMCA and the new
streetcar will run directly in front of the development on Central Parkway as well once
completed. This is currently anticipated to be complete within a year of the placed in service
date of this LIHTC development.

1 Page 94 of the 2010-2014 City of Cincinnati Consolidated Plan
2 Page 63 of the City of Cincinnati Consolidated Plan 2010-2014, referencing City of Cincinnati Ordinance “The
Impaction Ordinance 346-2001
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Table 6: Nearby Amenities and Services

As evidenced in the Market Study commissioned as part of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit
Application, there are 30 federally subsidized and/or Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)
apartment developments in the site’s Primary Market Area. Furthermore, it recognizes that there
is a great deal of redevelopment occurring in this area. These redevelopment efforts will produce
additional units of general occupancy housing units and amenities.

Close by there are a wealth of recently developed affordable housing opportunities. Within a
mile is the City West development, a mixed income and mixed use development. It has market
rate, tax credit units, and subsidized units. There are also subsidized units available within a 2
mile radius at Stanley Rowe. Further, there are over 1000 affordable non-designated subsidized
and unsubsidized units in the zip code 45202, with units sized from 0 bedrooms to 4 bedroom
units.

PHA Housing Resources
Currently CMHA has over 5,000 Low Income Public Housing units throughout Hamilton
County and none of these developments are currently designated as elderly. A listing of CMHA
units is included as Attachment G. These units will be new; therefore the designation of these
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units represents no removal of accessible units from the existing stock of Low Income Public
Housing units.

Access to Services for Non-Elderly Families
CMHA’s Asset Management staff members are equipped to assist non-elderly families with
services in a similar way as the seniors are served in this development. The staff has access to a
list of partners for tenant referral to obtain services such as transportation, meals, light
housekeeping for persons with disabilities, financial counseling and other services.

Housing for Non-Elderly
The intended elderly designation would include only 15 units. Currently, CMHA experiences an
annual turnover rate of approximately 1200 units. Further, at a 98% occupancy rate, CMHA
would have approximately 100 units available at any given time. Therefore there are
consistently enough units to absorb at least the number of non-elderly families as is planned to be
served by the Central YMCA Senior Apartments.

Accessible Housing

Due to the number of affordable housing units in the area, there are more accessible housing
units then would be generally available in the private market. CMHA’s current portfolio has 116
accessible units of the 5,025 units, or 2.3% of the units. All of these, with the exception of 6
units are in family projects.

Agency Plan

The reference for the development of this site for elderly usage can be found on page 18 of
CMHA’s FY14Annual Plan.

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