A Madison-based corporation has agreed to buy a Suring apartment building that village officials threatened to condemn because of substandard living conditions.
Village leaders are confident the change will result in better living conditions for the tenants of Pioneer Villa Apartments, 415 N. Mill St., who have reported problems that include a leaky roof, building deterioration and an insect infestation.
“It should be good for everybody because they have the ability to improve the living standards,” said Carol Heise, village clerk.
Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corporation of Madison will purchase the 20-unit Pioneer Villa Apartments and eight-unit Manor Drive Apartments, 416 Manor Drive, from the Suring Non-Profit Housing Corporation, which will be dissolved.
The sale must still be approved by the two federal agencies — the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — that oversee the low-income rental properties.
WHPC representative Dan O’Connell said the deal could be completed by the end of the month. Neither O’Connell nor Suring officials were willing to provide financial details of the sale because it has not been finalized.
WHPC is one of the largest housing nonprofits in the U.S. and operates nearly 7,000 units in Wisconsin, according to O’Connell.
Typically, when WHPC takes charge of a property, it is rehabilitated, and more emphasis is placed on services, O’Connell said.
“If they have vacancy issues (six or seven of the Pioneer Villa apartments are vacant), those are to be addressed by potentially providing a better living situation, both from physical improvements and social improvements,” he said. “The properties need infusion of capital, which we can provide.”
Horizon Management Group, of La Crosse, replaced Housing Management Services of Oconto as the property manager, as of Jan. 1. Denise Loveland, president of Horizon Management Group, said Horizon agreed to manage the apartments with the assurance that appropriate funds will be available for changes.
“The key thing is that things can be done. It will probably be two steps forward and one step back,” she said, noting that issues continue to pop up. “We’re prioritizing what needs to be done.”
Limited work has been done to address what Loveland called “the ridiculous installation of the roof.” Because of the flat surface and inefficient drainage, snow and ice build up, which results in leakage. Additional roof work is planned when the weather permits, she said.
Horizon management personnel have met with tenants and offered options, such as relocating to a different unit, for those unhappy with their unit. Horizon also hired a pest control provider and has authorized its local caretakers to improve the vacant units so they are rent-ready.
Ken DePouw, whose firm previously managed the properties, retired in December and closed his business. DePouw, 70, said the issues at the apartment complex had no bearing on his plans to retire.
DePouw told Suring officials, under fire from residents because of problems at Pioneer Villa, that he did not make the repairs needed at the apartments because of difficulty in securing money from government agencies overseeing the low-income housing.
In an email to the Times Herald, however, a regional spokesperson for HUD said money was available in the project’s reserve fund for improvements.
“There is currently sufficient money in the project’s ‘reserve for replacement’ account, which is a fund that the owner can utilize, with HUD approval, to meet deferred capital needs of the property,” wrote Laura J. Feldman, with HUD’s Region V public affairs department in Chicago. “The owner/agent is currently depositing an additional $7,344 per year into this account.”
Also, because the apartments are what the government terms a Section 8 development, the tenants pay 30 percent of their income in rent, and HUD pays the balance each month to the owner/agent. According to HUD, $31,763 was paid to the Pioneer Villa Apartments’ owner/agent in 2013 in rental subsidy.
“There’s nowhere near the amount of money to do what they need to do,” DePouw said, blaming the financial shortfall on too many vacancies and the high costs associated with the property.
Feldman also said no requests from Housing Management Services for funds had gone unfulfilled, noting that a new rent adjustment was approved, effective Feb. 1, 2014.
DePouw said Feldman is unfamiliar with the project because the Chicago office took over the project two months ago; the Milwaukee office handled it previously.
“It’ll all work out in the wash,” he said. “By the end of this year, they should have all the work done.”
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