Autumn Village rent hike rumor false

Rumors that rent at the city's low-income senior apartments will increase are not true, representatives told tenants Wednesday.

"You know what, the gossip is running rampant around here," said Megan Harris, director of compliance for Community Development Inc., the nonprofit that runs the two Autumn Village complexes east of the Carson City Senior Citizens Center on Beverly Drive.

Rumors started after Carson City officials told the nonprofit earlier this month that it has to pay about $40,000 in property taxes on the first of the two Autumn Village complexes, a 47-unit building built in September 2006 known as "Phase 1."

The city said the nonprofit promised to pay the taxes and violated that promise when it filed for a state exemption on the taxes. Fred Cornforth, head of the Caldwell, Idaho-based group, said the group never said it wouldn't ask for the exemption and never promised to pay those taxes.

Harris told tenets the dispute cannot and will not affect rent.

Rents at government-assisted apartments such as Autumn Village can go up when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development changes how much people at various income levels have to pay.

Rates can also go up when the Nevada Rural Housing Authority changes how much it will pay for utility assistance.

But the increase is "very minor" when rents do go up, said Judy Heddy, an investigator with the Nevada Division of Housing.

For instance, monthly rates went up between $5 and $15 a month at Autumn Village last year when utility assistance decreased.

However, rates cannot increase in the middle of a lease, Heddy said.

Earlier this month, the relationship between the city and the nonprofit cooled after supervisors told the district attorney to send a notice of default on the property taxes.

The owners of the Autumn Village apartments rent the land from the city for free because of their service to low-income seniors.

The city will "exercise any and all rights and remedies" if the nonprofit doesn't start to pay within 60 days, "including but not limited to, repossession of the leased property," the letter says.

It would be possible for the nonprofit to pay property taxes, Cornforth has said, if the city hadn't given it the wrong information on a utility charge, which ended up being $100,000 more than the nonprofit initially expected.

Both sides have accused each other of refusing to negotiate.

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.