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More than 300 housing units will soon become available to low-income families living in McAllen and Mission after each city gave their support to their respective housing authorities in their pursuit of federal funding.
Some 217 of those units will be reserved for low-income seniors, while another 100 will be earmarked for low-income families.
Both cities’ housing authorities are hoping to kickstart the developments by gaining funding awards through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ Housing Tax Credit Program.
Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Treasury Department, though the TDHCA administers the money via two avenues — a noncompetitive 4% housing tax credit, or HTC, and a competitive 9% HTC.
It’s the latter that the Mission and McAllen housing authorities are pursuing
The tax credits allow developers “to offset a portion of their federal tax liability in exchange for the production or preservation of affordable rental housing,” according to an explainer on the TDHCA website.
On Monday, the Mission City Council unanimously voted to support the Mission Housing Authority in its request for about $2 million worth of the 9% HTCs.
The $44 million project calls for the construction of 100 units for low-income families, which will replace an 80-unit complex called Anacua Village along 8th Street.
Built in 1952, the development has long since fallen into a state of disrepair and is set for demolition as soon as March.
The Mission Housing Authority also has plans to build another 104 units at the same site specifically for low-income seniors.
“What used to serve 80 families will now serve 204 families on the same 16.4-acre lot that you have,” Arnold Padilla, executive director of the Mission Housing Authority, said.
Meanwhile, as Mission city leaders were enthusiastically greenlighting the proposal, officials in McAllen were weighing two similar proposals of their own.
In the first, a national nonprofit, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, was seeking the McAllen City Commission’s support to apply for about $2 million in housing credits for an 18.5-acre development off of Lark Avenue and 29th Street.
The development would include between 104 and 113 apartments for low-income seniors, as well as onsite access to social services via a program called “Si Se Puede,” according to a foundation spokesperson who addressed the commission on Monday.
But another organization was also vying for the McAllen commission’s support — the city’s own housing authority.
The McAllen Housing Authority has plans to construct a 113-unit development for seniors, said Henry Flores, president of Madhouse Development Services Inc., a private company that has partnered with the McAllen Housing Authority in the past.
Flores explained that the 9% HTCs are highly competitive, with applications far exceeding available funds.
“There are $22 million of requests for funds under this program in this region. There’s only $6.4 million available,” Flores said.
The TDHCA scores project proposals and awards funding to those select few that top the score charts.
And under that system, the McAllen Housing Authority would just miss the cut if the city chose to support the Cesar Chavez Foundation, Flores said.
“The top three applicants are each applying for $2 million each, so, the top three applicants will win the $6 million,” Flores said.
Those “top three” are the Brownsville Housing Authority, the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the Mission Housing Authority.
“The fourth is the McAllen Housing Authority, so, if the city commission chooses to support both applicants, only one will be selected and it will not be your housing authority,” Flores said.
Flores lauded the foundation for the “wonderful work” it has done across the country and lamented that the commission had a “difficult decision” to make, but added that his company and the McAllen Housing Authority have developed 10 low-income housing projects in the city combined.
Ultimately, the commission sided with its own housing authority, voting 4-to-2 to oppose the foundation’s request for a resolution in support of its project. A few moments later, the commission unanimously approved the McAllen Housing Authority’s similar request.
Called the Villas at Primrose, the senior housing project will ultimately be built on a 4.23-acre plot of land off of Buddy Owens Boulevard and North Ware Road.
