Toledo's quest to increase low-income housing and revitalize decaying neighborhoods will keep construction crews busy well into the future, as a result of millions of dollars in recently awarded federal tax credits.
Six developers - two from Toledo - will receive a total of $41 million in tax credits for construction of 248 houses and five apartment buildings in Toledo.
The developers, the amount of tax credits they received, and their projects:
In Tiffin, GoldBond Properties L.P., of Gahanna, Ohio, received $2.4 million in tax credits for a project at 154 South Washington St.
The tax credits are sold as commodities to private institutions in exchange for capital used to build the structures.
The $255 million in tax credits were distributed by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. Only Columbus qualified for more credits than Toledo, receiving more than $47 million.
The houses, 221 of which will be for qualified low-income occupants, are being offered through a lease-purchase program. Under the program, the state requires the houses to be leased for 15 years, after which tenants may purchase the structures for the balance of the mortgage.
“Hopefully, the person moving in first will stick it out. If they move out, they get nothing,” said Ron Grant, executive director of Toledo Central City Neighborhoods.
At the end of the 15-year period, the occupant would have the option of purchasing the house. In the case of central city neighborhood's Oakwood I and II developments, in the Oakwood-Norwood area, the balance of the mortgage would be about $10,000, Mr. Grant said.
For qualified low-income housing, average monthly rent ranges from $385 for a three-bedroom house to $425 for four-bedrooms. To qualify, a family's annual income must be below the 50 percent median, or about $20,000 to $25,000, Mr. Grant said.
Ground was broken recently for the Oakwood I development, funded by allocations last year from the same tax credit program. The development calls for 35 new and five renovated houses
The neighborhood, formerly referred to as “Cokewood” because of the illicit drugs that flooded the area, epitomized urban decay.
The development corporation's battle to revitalize the neighborhood is fueled by the awarding this year of the $5.2 million in tax credits to fund the project's second phase, which calls for 40 new houses.
“We were founded strictly to help build community-based development,” said Hugh Grefe, the local initiatives' senior program director for Toledo.
“It's a nice blend of projects this year,” Mr. Grefe said.