FAYETTEVILLE — A $3.5 million federal grant for exterior improvements to Hillcrest Towers could help cement the public housing project’s place in downtown.
“Once we do the repairs, the longevity would be, I’d say, another 20 to 30 years,” Fredia Sawin, executive director of the city Housing Authority, said in an interview last week.
The housing authority’s board of trustees plans to use money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace bricks and mortar, seal concrete balconies and make roof improvements at the more than 40-year-old, high-rise building at School Avenue and Meadow Street.
At A Glance
Emergency Grant
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sets aside capital improvement money each year for emergencies and natural disasters. The money is distributed to housing authorities across the country that apply for it. The Fayetteville Housing Authority was one of 11 agencies to share $20 million in 2012.
Source: U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development
Hillcrest Towers, in recent years, has shown its age. Some of the building’s bricks have started to chip away, and white streaks are visible on the building’s facade.
“Because of leaching from the mortar … it could be a danger,” Sawin said. “For this building, this is a lot of work.”
The $3.5 million grant is more than it cost to build Hillcrest Towers and two other public housing developments — Willow Heights and Lewis Plaza — in the early 1970s, according to minutes from a March 1970 board meeting.
The housing authority received the emergency grant money in December. Sawin said a construction contract will likely be awarded in June. She said she expected work to begin this summer and wrap up by the end of the year.
Hillcrest Towers, available for people who are disabled or older than 55, has 120 units on 12 floors. Residents must meet federal income requirements. A single adult must earn less than $32,600 annually. Tenants typically put 30 percent of their adjusted monthly income toward rent.
Sawin said residents receive regular meals through Meals on Wheels. The building is centrally located with access to Dickson Street and the downtown square, the public library and a bus stop on Center Street.
“There’s a lot of convenience in this building,” Sawin said. “If it went away, where would a lot of these people go?”
Lillian Vincent, a tenant for the past 1 1/2 years, said the building’s apartments are comfortable enough.
“It just needs a cosmetic face-lift,” Vincent said. “A lot of these people would rather be here than in a nursing home. If they’re capable of being on their own, this is a good place for them.”
The emergency grant will supplement dwindling federal dollars for capital improvements in recent years. According to Sawin, the Housing Authority received $331,165 in capital money in 2010; $291,303 in 2011; and $252,177 in 2012 — a dip of roughly $79,000, or 24 percent, in two years.
“I’ve heard 2013 is going to be less,” she said. “Each year seems to get worse.”
Morgan Manor, a 52-unit complex that opened in southeast Fayetteville in 1983, is the last public housing development the housing authority built.
The authority’s board applied for tax credits from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority to help replace 36 units at Lewis Plaza with a mixture of subsidized housing for low-income tenants and market-rate apartments that could be rented to the general public. Lewis Plaza is behind Burger King on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The Development Finance Authority is expected to announce tax credit awards next week.
Other recent expenditures at Hillcrest Towers include a generator ($314,000 in 2012); a central air-conditioning system ($273,000 in 2010); and elevator upgrades ($330,000 in 2009).
Mayor Lioneld Jordan on Wednesday called the Hillcrest Towers grant a “great investment.”
“It will certainly improve that building and the way people see it in the city,” Jordan said. “It has gotten into a bit of disrepair over the years, and it needs a face-lift.”