BARRE — Two weeks removed from a flood that forced the emergency relocation of more than two dozen tenants from a pair of its properties, Downstreet Housing and Community Development is still in mop-up mode while pressing ahead with other projects.
Downstreet Executive Director Angie Harbin said Monday the organization’s bandwidth has been tested but not broken in the aftermath of the flood hit, even as it was taking the first steps toward expanding its central Vermont portfolio by potentially acquiring a motel on South Main Street in Barre.
“We still need affordable housing, it turns out, flood or no flood,” Harbin said.
No flood would have made things infinitely easier for Downstreet, which was juggling projects in Barre, Berlin and Waterbury, and flirting with the acquisition of the Quality Inn in Barre before being hit with the distraction of dealing with flood damage and displaced tenants.
The news could have been a whole lot worse, according to Harbin, who said while floodwaters surrounded Downstreet’s headquarters on Keith Avenue in Barre, as well as the Montpelier Transit Center on Taylor Street in Montpelier two weeks ago, damage to those properties was minimal and tenants in the upper floors of both buildings were briefly isolated, but otherwise unaffected.
According to Harbin, the same can’t be said of North Branch Apartments — a riverside project that saw basements in both buildings flooded, destroying items stored by tenants. One of those buildings remains habitable but, she said, 23 tenants had to be moved from the other due to problems associated with an oil tank that tipped over and structural concerns involving the exterior sidewalk.
Harbin said repairs are well underway and the hope is all but four first-floor units will be ready for re-occupancy by the end of the week.
Four of the units will remain out of commission after repairs to the building’s mechanical systems are complete and concerns about the sidewalk addressed. Harbin said those units were actually flooded and replacing walls and cabinets will be required. One of the occupants has secured permanent alternative housing and the other three tenants were among those either shuffled to vacant units owned or managed by Downstreet, or put up in motels like the one the nonprofit is thinking about buying in Barre.
Harbin said another two Downstreet tenants were displaced from its Good Neighbors property on Elm Street in Barre due to concerns raised by the fire department. Those concerns are being addressed.
Only one other Downstreet property — the French Block — in Montpelier was damaged in the flood, though tenants of the 18 second- and third-floor apartments above Aubuchon Hardware were only marginally affected. Harbin said all were briefly without power, and those who rely on the building’s elevator to come and go will have to wait until it is repaired.
Harbin said while the flood has placed a strain on Downstreet staff, and raised questions about whether the cost of repairs will exceed what flood insurance will cover, it hasn’t altered housing projects that are at various stages of development.
One — the possible acquisition of the Quality Inn in Barre — is in its infancy and while Harbin stressed the “preliminary” nature of the project, she noted Downstreet has taken the first steps toward evaluating its viability.
Both an architect and an appraiser have been involved, and Harbin was scheduled to request a letter of support from the city council in Barre at a meeting that was canceled two weeks ago because a significant portion of the city had just flooded.
Harbin said that request will be renewed as Downstreet assembles the funding application it plans to submit to the Vermont Housing Conservation Board at its September meeting.
There are questions to answer, and Harbin said the biggest involves the nature of the property, which at least in the near term would continue to function as it currently is. Downstreet doesn’t operate motels, but would under a model that contemplates creating a more economical alternative for the state to provide shelter for the unhoused in emergency and non-emergency situations.
Harbin said the state would pre-pay for the ability to put people up in the 42-room motel, that Downstreet would eventually consider converting into more traditional housing.
Harbin said there are features of the property that would support a down-the-road transition that would be more in keeping with Downstreet’s mission.
“There is a lot to consider,” she said. “We won’t be moving forward with it lightly.”
On the opposite end of the development spectrum is a project that is simultaneously scheduled to start construction in September.
Funding for the “scattered site project” in Barre is in place, and Harbin said a major upgrade to Bromur Street Apartments and the planned transformation of the former Ward 5 School into nine new affordable housing units should soon be underway.
Fox Run — a 30-unit affordable housing project planned on property currently owned by the Berlin Mall — is in a holding pattern that has nothing to do with the flood.
Harbin said Downstreet has a purchase and sales agreement with the mall and has lined up most of the financing for the project, but is attempting to bridge what appears to be a roughly $3 million gap between early estimates and currently anticipated costs.
Harbin said Downstreet’s plans to construct 26 units of affordable housing in downtown Waterbury also are progressing. She said partial financing has been arranged and plans to apply for tax credits as part of the funding package in January.
david.delcore
@timesargus.com
