Last week I (Mike Smiley) sent a note to Steve McMurtrey, one of our developers. I felt that with the current federal administration instability, it would be good to have an idea of what Steve’s thoughts were on its impact on our housing project.My note read: With our pending housing project and the freewheeling cuts by the president I was wondering if you have any insights, from your connections, as to the future funding of housing from the feds? Have any of the current cuts related to federal housing grants?… Here is his response.
“Keeping all the “feels” out of it, when it comes to Federal resources and housing, only time will tell. In the last couple of weeks, as things have continued to be revealed, I have been encouraged by the commitment to most housing resources, including the low income housing tax credit. Also, so far, there’s been no indication that there would be a slow down in voucher assistance payments to the Section 8 program. Could these be on the chopping block, yes, but so could Medicare and Social Security.
I guess we can only control what we can control. I can say that for St. Paul’s development we are exploring options that utilize existing zoning and would maximize state resources first. It’s not that we couldn’t or wouldn’t need to pursue Federal resources but it’s not the first source we’d pursue. If we can avoid any Federal entanglements we will.”
Stephen McMurtrey