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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Lease Is Up
By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
Journal Staff Writer
A rundown apartment building in Barelas, long a magnet for unsavory characters and illicit behavior, will be demolished to make room for new, affordable homes.
The apartments, near Sixth and Iron SW just a few blocks from Downtown, were condemned by the Albuquerque Police Department in 2007 because of drug trafficking and other criminal behavior. The building was also declared unsafe for habitation due to problems with wiring and plumbing and other structural issues.
It has sat vacant, blocked off by a metal fence, since then.
A nonprofit that bought the property says it should be cleared by the end of summer and replaced with "permanently affordable" housing.
Between four and eight homes will be built on the site, but there are no details yet because the groups still must find funding to build them.
In 2009, members of the Barelas Neighborhood Association and the Barelas Community Coalition voted to team up with the Sawmill Community Land Trust to bring the vision of affordable housing to life.
The nonprofit Sawmill trust was started in 1999 to help revitalize the Sawmill and Wells Park neighborhoods north of Downtown. It purchases properties and builds homes to sell to low-income buyers.
Because the nonprofit owns the land, the buyer pays only for the home. When the owners sell, they can make a profit if the home has gained value, but the expectation is that the price will remain well below market value since the trust will retain title of the land.
Christina Cosme, development and finance manager for the Sawmill Community Land Trust, said the new homes will be an asset to the community as well as the homeowner.
"We'd like to be able to offer (low-income residents) an option in their own community," Cosme said, but she added that anyone can purchase a home, regardless of where they live.
Daniel Gutierrez, who works for the Barelas Neighborhood Association and the Barelas Community Coalition, a nonprofit offshoot of the neighborhood association, said his community was impressed with what Sawmill had done in its area and wanted to work with the group.
Cosme said Sawmill gets much of its funding from the city's Workforce Housing Trust Fund, as well as grants and other sources.
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