The fate of the Beacon Light Apartments will take some time to settle, and the City Council hopes to use that time to decide what it wants to happen with the subsidized housing project off Boddie Street.
City Manager Eric Williams reported to the council Monday night that he’s optimistic about the future of the 108-unit rental complex. He said the Department of Housing and Urban Development official who oversees such multifamily subsidized developments in the Carolinas, Greensboro-based Dan McCanless, has voiced support for renovating the 32-year-old complex.
He will be the city’s advocate in pressing ahead with the project if that’s what the council wants, Williams said.
Williams also said he was reassured after speaking Monday to the management firm for Beacon Light, McClain Barr & Associates. The owner of the complex, the Beacon Light Masonic Lodge, hired McClain Barr about two years ago, Williams said.
In an e-mail message April 29 to HUD in Washington, McCanless called McClain Barr “an excellent management agent” and said the property “can and should be salvaged for the good of the residents and the City of Henderson.”
That’s the position Williams took in a letter he rushed out the same day to HUD in response to a plea for support from the architect on the Beacon Light renovation, Clinton Gravely.
“The worst thing that could happen,” Williams said Monday, is for HUD to withdraw its subsidy for the Beacon Light Apartments, foreclose on its current loan, and force the residents of the 108 units to take Section 8 vouchers to rental homes scattered throughout Vance, Franklin and Warren counties.
But council member Elissa Yount and Mayor Clem Seifert said it’s not so clear that the city should support the renovation, and council member John Wester advised that the city government ought to stay out of Beacon Light’s future altogether.
The whole discussion comes seven weeks after the chairman of the Beacon Light Masonic Lodge, William Rogers, appeared before the council to announce that the housing complex was set for a $3.5 million loan from HUD to overhaul the complex. The council warmly received the report and offered support with cleaning up the surrounding area.
Monday night, Yount said she feels that Rogers misled the council when he spoke so confidently about the approval of the Beacon Light loan.
“We were never told of those abysmal ratings,” Yount said of conditions at Beacon Light that resulted in inspection scores of 17 in March and 25 in November on a scale of 100.
“I was just mortified that Henderson had allowed that,” she said. She noted that the management company that has impressed McCanless is the same company that was in charge when Beacon Light produced its recent record of declining scores.
The management has not been able to turn the facility around in two years, and the reduction in potential loan size from $3.5 million to $2.6 million might not leave enough money to correct the raw sewage problem.
“If the sewage can’t be fixed, I would say nothing needs to be spent on that facility,” Yount said.
Williams said the management company has spent more than $200,000 on plumbing at the complex in two years to make up for the failures of previous management, and that spending drained Beacon Light’s reserve funds.
“I admit management for Beacon Light has not been the best. It’s probably one of the worst managed areas in this area,” council member Lonnie Davis said. “However, I think the city has some of the blame” for not enforcing standards around Boddie Street.
Because of the lack of street lights, the overgrowth, the standing water and other problems on neighboring properties, Beacon Light is like “living in Guantanamo Bay,” except that the residents can leave, Davis said.
“I understand the architect’s desire to have this move forward. I understand the management company’s,” Yount said. “But who is looking out for the poor people who have to live in those dire circumstances?”
Williams said the council needs more information, including some detailed demographics of Beacon Light, before it considers withdrawing support for the project.
“We need to think about the people first, not the money, not the lodge, not the architect, not the management company, the poor people that have to live there,” Yount said. She said the best option for those people might be to move out.
She suggested conveying to McCanless that the city isn’t sure about the renovation now.
“I think the city is probably overstepping its boundaries by getting involved in this,” Wester said. “I see the train wreck coming, and their problems become our problems.”
He noted that Beacon Light is privately owned, and as with any private property, it is not the city’s responsibility to step in and fix everything. “We’ve got these problems all over town.”
Seifert suggested being straightforward with McCanless and telling him that the council is having second thoughts and would like a chance to take an official stand before HUD makes a decision.
“If we don’t push and prod, I’m of the opinion that that community could become worse rather than better,” Williams said.
Given the soft real estate market, the prospects for the Beacon Light site if the project does not get the HUD loan are dire, he said.
Williams said the city could be setting itself up for a situation where it has a homelessness task force becoming more active just as the city advocates kicking more than 100 families out of their homes.
“Those people would be better off living on the street than living at Beacon Light,” said Deryl von Williams, who was allowed to deliver her scheduled public comment after the discussion of the housing project.
“It is an embarrassment,” she added, that the city of Henderson has gone on record as supporting the renovation of a complex where people have lived with raw sewage for years. “We cannot condone that. It needs to be bulldozed, and those people need to find housing on the moon if necessary.”
HUD’s decisions are “weeks and weeks and weeks away,” the city manager said, so the council has some time to evaluate the prospects for the complex and its residents.