Where: Courtyard Apartments, Kalispell, Montana
Problem: Apartment complex for low-income residents with disabilities is at risk in a tight rental market.
Solution: RCAC works with Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana to refinance, rehabilitate and preserve the project for low-income residents with disabilities.
The Courtyard Apartments were developed in the mid-1990s as a collaboration between the Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana (CAPNM) and the city of Kalispell. Originally financed with HOME Investment Partnership Program and HUD’s Special Needs Assistance Program, Courtyard Apartments was one of the first in Montana to integrate housing for homeless and low-income families, with 16 units providing transitional housing for the homeless and the remaining 16 units affordable to low-income households.
The property was owned by both entities until 2011 when CAPNM acquired the city’s 16 units. The Special Needs Assessment Program requirements are no longer in effect, but CAPNM wants to continue to serve special needs households as part of the development.
Courtyard Apartments is now 20 years old and needs substantial rehabilitation. It is obvious that CAPNM needed to refinance and substantially rehabilitate the property to preserve the project to keep it a sustainable affordable housing development in Kalispell in a tight rental market where the overall vacancy rate is 2.1 percent.
RCAC developed a financing strategy for CAPNM to rehabilitate and recapitalize the Courtyard Apartments. As a result, CAPNM is the first agency in Montana to be awarded HUD Section 811 rental assistance from the Montana Department of Commerce (MDOC) Housing Division, which will provide rental assistance to very low-income adults with disabilities at the Courtyard Apartments. This rental assistance will be paired with 9 percent low-income housing tax credits and private financing as part of the overall financing package. CAPNM received a provisional 9 percent low-income housing tax credit in January 2016. If it doesn’t receive the allocation this year, it will likely be successful next year.
The Courtyard Apartments is an affordable housing development that will be preserved in a tight rental market. Moreover, the project will provide affordable housing for eight very low- and extremely low-income adults with disabilities.
