News

Subsidized housing going on sale

Jeff Schmucker
Published: November 17, 2012

BROOKSVILLE - Both federal authorities and local housing authority members have determined that demolishing Hillside Estate and Summit Villa will be too expensive.

The only recourse left is to put both South Brooksville properties on the market and hope something better can be made of them.

Randy Woodruff, who chairs the Brooksville Housing Authority board, said officials with the U.S. Housing and Urban Development have indicated they don't have the funds available to cover the cost of demolishing both properties.

Neither does the city housing authority, leaving few options to pay for tearing down the structures, which would cost roughly more than $1 million.

Both properties, he said, would cost more than $17 million to renovate — an option that long-ago was eliminated.

Woodruff said board members hoped the Hernando County Housing Authority would take over the properties. However, he said it appears there isn't any interest.

"At this point, it's a lot of maintenance," Woodruff said. "But we have been approached by some nonprofits and I get the impression that the buildings would be well suited for homeless shelters — since they would be temporary housing. But I don't know of any potential buyer who would be interested in doing that."

Once the fate of those properties is determined, Woodruff has said the Brooksville Housing Authority would be disbanded. Employees have already been notified that their jobs would be eliminated — some possibly soon — and are being encouraged to find other employment, such as with the county housing authority.

City housing board members have not taken an official vote to disband. However, it's been a known goal since many of them were appointed and took on efforts to bring the housing authority out of "troubled" status after previous leadership came under criminal investigation and the authority was in financial disarray.

Last November, the group learned that HUD would no longer have to scrutinize the authority's budget.

The group earned the status after one housing director's firing in light of numerous deficiencies found in the two Section 8 complexes. Before that, former Executive Director Betty Trent and former project manager Joe Ann Bennett were charged with stealing more than $40,000 from the authority.

Meanwhile, Woodruff said, efforts are still under way to help the tenants find other places to live. Roughly two-thirds of the residents from the 126 housing units are estimated to have been relocated with both houses slated to be empty by early 2013.