The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA) a $29,575,000 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) Implementation Grant in December 2016 for the revitalization of the Beecher Terrace public housing development and the wider Russell neighborhood. All buildings on the current Beecher Terrace site will be razed and replaced with a vibrant, sustainable mixed-income, mixed-use community.
LMHA has committed to replacing all 758 units (1,317 bedrooms) on the site, ensuring that the same number of households residing at Beecher Terrace today will be housed post-revitalization. The CNI Transformation Plan calls for the construction of 316 replacement units on the existing Beecher Terrace footprint and the provision of 442 replacement units off-site within the Russell neighborhood, or non-impacted census tracts in Jefferson County.
LMHA has designed a Local Project-Based Voucher (PBV) Rental Subsidy Program that will be utilized as a strategic tool to provide the 442 Beecher Terrace replacement units. If you own property that is being used for rental housing located in either the Russell neighborhood or a non-impacted census tract, your property may qualify for PBV rental subsidy assistance. Enter your rental property address in the impacted census tract map to see if your property is in an eligible location.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT-BASED VOUCHER PROGRAM
A Public Housing Agency (PHA), such as the Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA), that already administers a tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program may opt to utilize a portion of its HCV funds to operate a PBV Program. While tenant-based HCV vouchers are issued to individual Families, the federal assistance associated with PBVs is effectively “attached” to a structure (units within a building).
The PHA enters into a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract with an Owner for specified units. In the case of housing to be constructed or rehabilitated, the housing is developed under an Agreement to enter into a Housing Assistance Payment contract (AHAP), and a HAP contract is executed after the Owner completes the construction or rehabilitation of the units. During the term of the HAP contract, the PHA makes monthly housing assistance payments to the Owner for units leased and occupied by eligible Families.
SELECTION OF BEECHER TERRACE REPLACEMENT PROPERTIES FOR RECEIPT OF PROJECT-BASED ASSISTANCE
1. Selection Process
LMHA will select PBV housing units (not owned by LMHA) for PBV assistance through the following two methods:
a. Selection Based on Previous Competition
LMHA may select, without competition, a proposal to “attach” PBV assistance to housing that is or has been assisted under a federal, state, or local government housing assistance, community development, or supportive services program that required competitive selection of proposals (e.g., HOME, Louisville CARES, Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, units for which competitively awarded LIHTCs have been provided, previous LMHA-issued RFP or RFQ, etc.) where the proposal was selected in accordance with such program’s competitive selection requirements within three years of the PBV proposal selection date, and that did not consider that the project would receive PBV assistance. Under this subsection, the vouchers can be project-based by a vote of the LMHA Board of Commissioners. A rolling Request for Proposals for projects meeting the competitive funding award criteria is available on the Housing Authority’s website.
b. Issuance of a Request for Proposals
LMHA has issued a rolling Request for Proposals inviting interested Owners to participate in the Housing Authority’s PBV Program according to its customary Procurement Policy, which incorporates broad public notice of the opportunity, including publication of the public notice in the jurisdiction’s local newspaper of general circulation (Courier-Journal).
The Request for Proposals instrument describes detailed application and selection information and will be provided at the request of interested parties. The instrument is also available on the Housing Authority’s website.
2. Selection Requirements
Regardless of the manner of selection, all projects awarded PBV assistance for the purpose of Beecher Terrace replacement housing must meet the standards enumerated in this section.
a. Special Housing Types. LMHA will not award project-based assistance to Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Housing, Congregate Housing, Group Homes, and/or Cooperative Housing, Shared Housing, Homeownership units, Manufactured Homes or Manufactured Home Space rental.
b. Units on the grounds of a penal, reformatory, medical, mental, or similar public or private institution are not eligible for PBV assistance;
c. Nursing homes and facilities providing continuous psychiatric, medical, nursing services, board and care, or intermediate care are not eligible for PBV assistance;
d. Assisted living facilities that provide home health care services such as nursing and therapy for residents of the housing are not eligible for the PBV assistance;
e. Units that are owned or controlled by an educational institution or its affiliate and are designated for occupancy by students of the institution are not eligible for assistance;
f. PHAs are not permitted to attach or pay PBV assistance for a unit occupied by an Owner of the housing. A member of a Cooperative who owns shares in the project assisted under the PBV program shall not be considered an Owner for purposes of participation in the PBV program;
g. Before a PHA selects a specific unit to which assistance is to be attached, the Agency must determine whether the unit is occupied and, if occupied, whether the unit’s occupants are eligible for assistance. The Agency must not select or enter into an AHAP or a HAP contract for a unit occupied by a Family ineligible for participation in the PBV Program;
h. PHAs are not permitted to attach or pay PBV assistance for units for which construction or rehabilitation has commenced after proposal submission and prior to execution of an
For the purpose of this determination, “construction” begins when excavation or site preparation (including clearing of the land) begins for the housing. “Rehabilitation” begins with the physical commencement of rehabilitation activity on the housing;
i. A PHA is not permitted to attach or pay PBV assistance to units in any of the following types of subsidized housing:
i. A public housing dwelling unit;
ii. A unit subsidized with any other form of Section 8 assistance (tenant-based or project-based);
iii. A unit subsidized with any governmental rent subsidy (a subsidy that pays all or any part of the rent);
iv. A unit subsidized with any governmental subsidy that covers all or any part of the operating costs of the housing;
v. A unit subsidized with Section 236 rental assistance payments (12 U.S.C. 1715z-1). However, the PHA may attach assistance to a unit subsidized with Section 236 interest reduction payments;
vi. A unit subsidized with rental assistance payments under Section 521 of the Housing Act of 1949, 42 U.S.C. 1490a (a Rural Housing Service Program). However, the PHA may attach assistance for a unit subsidized with Section 515 interest reduction payments (42 U.S.C. 1485);
vii. A Section 202 project for non-elderly persons with disabilities (assistance under Section 162 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, 12 U.S.C. 1701q note);
viii. Section 811 project-based supportive housing for persons with disabilities (42 U.S.C. 8013);
ix. Section 202 supportive housing for the elderly (12 U.S.C. 1701q);
x. A Section 101 rent supplement project (12 U.S.C. 1701s);
xi. A unit subsidized with any form of tenant-based rental assistance (as defined at 24 CFR 982.1(b)(2)) (g., a unit subsidized with tenant-based rental assistance under the HOME program, 42 U.S.C. 12701 et seq.);
xii. A unit with any other duplicative federal, state, or local housing subsidy, as determined by HUD or by the LMHA in accordance with HUD requirements. For this purpose, “housing subsidy” does not include the housing component of a welfare payment; a social security payment; or a federal, state, or local tax concession (such as relief from local real property taxes);
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