By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
At first, Barbara Love-Peacock was apprehensive.
She heard that the Washington Housing Authority was taking over the management of Clifton Meadows Apartments.
As a resident of the Washington apartment complex for nearly four years, Love-Peacock couldn’t foresee what changes were in store for her and her neighbors.
“I think a lot of people were concerned about many issues simply because there wasn’t enough information,” she said.
She, along with other residents at Clifton Meadows, had questions: Where would they pay rent? Who would accept the payments? Who would be the point of contact for repairs?
“We just needed information, that was all,” she said.
Love-Peacock and other residents found answers through the housing authority, which is a public housing agency, and Washington Housing Inc., a nonprofit subsidiary of the housing authority that bought the apartments.
“I feel very good about the change,” she said. “It makes me feel more hopeful than I have been in the past year.”
The housing entities recently held a cookout for residents of the apartments, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week.
The staff has outlined whom residents may call and what times those contacts can be reached if questions arise, according to Love-Peacock.
The housing authority has also provided a direct line for emergency repairs.
“That was something that didn’t happen before,” said Love-Peacock. “All of these things make one feel a bit safer in their community.”
The housing authority’s acquisition of Clifton Meadows from the privately owned Pamlico Properties ensured that the 60 units on site would retain rent subsidies, shared Marc Recko, executive director of the housing authority.
The subsidies might have been lost had the apartments been sold to a private interest, Recko said.
Clifton Meadows was built and subsidized in 1981 under a tax credit that helped finance a private partnership, Recko related.
The apartments could have remained in private hands, but “the tax credits had run out on the property,” he said.
At one point the owners of Clifton Meadows were prepared to sell the property, he reported. The owners had no interest in managing the apartments, which had been managed by a Raleigh firm, according to Recko.
Faced with a potential crisis, the housing authority had two options: let the property be sold and take the chance that current residents might have to find cheaper accommodations or acquire Clifton Meadows.
“If we didn’t figure out some way to get it, then it would have gone over to the private market,” Recko said.
And there already is a shortage of affordable-housing stock for low-to-moderate-income families in Washington, he acknowledged.
Occupants of Clifton Meadows fall within the guidelines for federal low-to-moderate income standards, he indicated.
That could mean that a mother of two living on the property might have an income of just $12,000 a year.
“You figure if you’re a mother with a couple of kids and you’re making minimum wage, you’re probably making about $12,000 a year,” Recko said. “You can’t do much on $12,000 a year.”
So, the housing authority spent more than two years working on a project that included getting a $1.7 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development section.
The loan allowed the housing authority to buy Clifton Meadows and plan $400,000 worth of renovations to the apartments, Recko said.
“Our goal is to stabilize the property for another 25 to 30 years,” he said.
The housing authority’s push to retain rent subsidies for the apartments was cheered by Tim Ware, chairman of the Washington Housing Authority and executive director of the Mid-East Commission.
“It also improves housing stock for low-to-moderate income for the town,” Ware said of the move.
“We talk so much about economic development coming into Beaufort County, and sometimes we forget about community development,” he said.
Love-Peacock, who works as a receptionist at JobLink in Washington, is familiar with some of the players in this matter, and not just because JobLink is under the Mid-East umbrella or because Washington Housing Inc. is located in the JobLink building.
Love-Peacock is disabled and enlists the aid of a service dog to help her with household tasks. But when a doctor told her that, for health reasons, she could no longer live on the second-floor level at Clifton Meadows, she needed someone to help her move to the ground floor.
So, on July 4, Mid-East employees joined with counselors and young people working through JobLink programs to form a moving team for Love-Peacock.
The team completed the move that same day.
“They took their time and their energy and their kindness to move me on their holiday,” Love-Peacock said. “And that was a very kind thing to do.”