Supervisors asked to raise rent requirements for Autumn Village

Future renters may have to pay more to live in Autumn Village, Carson City's low-income senior housing, to offset fast-rising construction costs.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will decide today whether to approve raising the minimum-income requirements for Phase 2 of the housing development. However, rates for Phase 1, expected to be complete in June, will remain the same.

Cost to build the first phase of the housing was about $5 million, according to the Nevada Housing Division.

The second part is expected to exceed that amount by up to $2 million, or 40 percent more, than the first project, according to Gregory Urrutia, chief financial officer of Community Development Inc., a developer of the project.

An increase of 20 percent, $1 million, was the amount developers expected, Urrutia wrote in a report last month to the city.

"While there may be the potential for the allocation of some additional tax credits to this project, they would only fund a small portion of the financing gap," he said.

The first Autumn Village apartment complex includes 47 units for low-income seniors.

While CDI has been working to reduce costs it has made "little progress," Urrutia told the city.

According to this proposal, the second building with 41 rental units and a manager's unit, will accept seniors with incomes averaging 50 percent of the yearly median. One-bedroom, one-bath units will be rented for a maximum of $603 per month; two-bedroom, one-bath units are $705 per month. The change is in the number of units available for the lower amounts: Fewer units than before are available for the lower rental rate.

A single senior at 40 percent of the median annual income would have earned $16,800, said Art Turner, chief of federal programs for the Nevada Housing Division. The median level, as of February 2005, is $42,000.

The request still provides for rents within federal guidelines and will allow "some affordability," but also helps the developers further recoup costs somewhat, Turner said.

Keeping rents down is imperative because seniors traditionally "have a stagnant income with increasing expenses and an array of medical costs," he said. "They are left in a financial squeeze."

If the supervisors decide against the increase, work on the second building won't be able to commence, said Andrew Burnham, the city's development services director.

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.

If you go

WHAT: Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Thursday

WHERE: Sierra Room, Community Center, 851 E. William St.

Autumn Village phase 2

Income # of units 1B or 2B

$21,000 29 1 bedroom

$25,200 5 1 bedroom

$21,000 6 2 bedroom

$25,200 1 2 bedroom