Southern Villas rehab project complete; 60 units provide affordable option for St. Johns County seniors

Advocates for affordable housing in the St. Augustine area have learned they better be creative, resourceful and sometimes patient to make progress.

The recent overhaul of the Southern Villas senior living complex is the perfect example of that.

The set of 60 rental units just off State Road 207 near St. Augustine Health & Rehab has seen the results of $2.3 million worth of work that should keep it as a viable housing option for years to come. The residents, along with housing officials and politicians celebrated the work at a ceremony Thursday.

Bill Lazar, St. Johns Housing Partnership executive director, said the complex, built around 1982, is tremendously important in a county where apartment complexes are simply not being built.

And with the median price of homes in St. Johns County now up to more than $300,000, many of those on fixed incomes need a place like Southern Villas.

Lazar said research shows that more than 5,000 county seniors are severely cost burdened, paying 50 percent or more of their income to cover housing. Statewide, there are 570,000 cost-burdened, low-income households headed by seniors (65 or older), according to a 2017 report from the Florida Housing Commission.

“It’s a great example of what we need for seniors,” Lazar said. “It’s an amazing property. I wish we were able to create more of them.”

Lazar said the work done included adding new metal roofs as well as modernized kitchens and bathrooms. It also made the apartments wheelchair accessible, which makes them easier for those who prefer to age in place.

“We took care of all the big ticket items,” Lazar said.

To get the money for the rehabilitation, Lazar said he had to wade through a sea of paperwork. The Partnership used low-income housing tax credits and a USDA Rural Development Multi Family Preservation and Revitalization loan. The construction lender and tax credit investor was TD Bank.

Work on the site was coordinated by Gorman & Company. The company’s Florida market president, Hana Eskra, said the project is a great example of how the right partnerships can lead to good things for a community.

“We really just extended life of that property for the next 30 years,” she said. “It’s been a really good project.”

Southern Villas is a complex that was built with USDA funds, and the people who live there generally receive subsidies so they don’t pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

Lazar said the Housing Partnership started the process of purchasing Southern Villas in 2009, getting a government-backed loan of 1 percent. That process took about a year and a half, but Lazar said it was worth the effort because it could help so many people.

And unlike some places built as government-assisted housing, Lazar said Southern Villas was well cared for and in good shape for its age. But the units weren’t going to hold up forever without some improvements.

When Eskra contacted Lazar and told him about the possibility of using the tax credits and the USDA-backed loan to rehabilitate the property, he moved quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

Lazar said the roofs were put on just a couple of months before Hurricane Matthew struck.

“I can’t imagine what we would have had if the hurricane had come through before the roof went on,” he said.

But instead of having a mess, Lazar instead has sturdy apartments that should be around for another generation or two. And that’s important for a county that will see its senior population rise in the coming years as the Baby Boomer generation ages.

Almost half of the people living in Southern Villas are 70 or older, Lazar said.

“There weren’t many other options, so we were really happy to rehab it,” Lazar said.