A cherished neighborhood nonprofit is straining under debt from a $2.7 million affordable housing project and looking to the city of Missoula and possibly the Missoula Housing Authority for help.
In 2008, the North Missoula Community Development Corp. completed the Burns Street Commons, a cooperative grocery store, community center and complex of 17 affordable homes on the Westside. Then the recession hit, the housing market slumped and the organization sold just seven of the housing units.
The corporation still owes an estimated $1.14 million on the project. A proposal to convert a $400,000 loan from the city of Missoula into a grant is among the solutions on the table to keep the neighborhood nonprofit in business and put families into affordable homes...
Councilman Bob Jaffe, who is proposing the city make that $400,000 a grant instead of a loan, said the contribution would be a permanent investment in affordable housing because the corporation holds the land in its housing projects in trust for perpetuity.
Translation: A cossetted community organizer is seeing his
In other news, for our housing hangover, the Federal Reserve recommends hair of the dog: EZ Money!
The entitlement mentality must end.in this economy the taxpayers can't afford to be bailing everyone who cant manage their money out. Period.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second bailout of this 400k.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the city isn't foreclosing and selling the units themselves. That's what they said they would do when this time came. They discussed the security of the note when they drafted the contract. The city can foreclose and sell the units for less than what NMDC is asking for them, a win win for affordable housing.
Exactly...or turn them into apts.
ReplyDeleteGolly, a socialist grocery store, a socialist community center, and a socialist housing complex all going down the drain together in a socialist city.
ReplyDeleteThis is really sad. It seems like there’s almost nothing left for the socialists to fail at.
This developer told the city they were going to rent the units out but no one on the council holds them accountable.
ReplyDeleteMax mentions the grocery store...how many millions in taxpayer money did they get for that? Why didn't they use it to pay off their loans?
http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=3270
ReplyDeleteThis is the original budget I found for this "affordable" home project. I would guess that the current appraised value of these units comes nowhere near 3 million dollars. This project, where the land is not a part of the purchase price for the condo owner may not have been viable in the boom times.
Lot's of folks made money on this deal, including the bank. Perhaps they can give back their interest collected thus far and the fees, the developer can give back their 94,000 bucks and the taxpayer can get a break from a bailout for once.
Actually, Anonymous, the project is working as expected; that is, the goal of all socialist schemes is to take money from one entity and give it to another. (Recall that socialism is not an economic system but rather a wealth transfer system.) In that regard, the project is a success.
ReplyDeleteWhether the project made a good profit, broke even, or utterly failed is of no consequence. Neither does it matter if the vast multitude of destitute citizens in Missoula ever found shelter in any of the condominiums. What matters is that wealth is transferred from the taxpayers to the bloodsucking realtors, bankers, builders, and other assorted leeches usually found in socialist systems.