Rusty Sibley, of the Greater Miami Neighborhoods, gave a brief presentation at the Hernando County Housing Authority meeting last night for the proposed 60-unit Affordable Housing project for the elderly on Barnett Road. This proposed project is located behind the Applebees at SR 41 and SR 50. All the units are projected to be one-bedroom units specifically designed to serve the low income elderly residents of our county. The Greater Miami Neighborhoods will begin the application process in January of 2006 at the state level. During Mr. Sibley's presentation he indicated that no elderly housing funding has been approved in Hernando County by the state of Florida in three years. His firm wanted to increase the units to 100 for their funding application stating they may have a better chance for approval. Although discussion took place to increase the number of units, the Housing Authority Commissioners cautioned that this may be unwise because of the timeline necessary to complete the approval process at the county level and still meet the deadline for application requirements for the state. A motion was made for Hernando County Housing Authority approval and backing for the 60-unit elderly complex at the suggestion of Chairman Sullivan to indicate the Board's solidarity on the issue. The motion passed 4-0.
The Hernando County Housing Authority agenda had several more items on their agenda that required a vote by the board. One was the appeal by Mr. & Mrs. Christa Cabrea for their continued housing assistance. Mr. Singer, Executive Director of the Housing Authority, had terminated their assistance based on guidelines governing arrests of tenants. The Cabrea's appealed to the Housing Authority to overturn Mr. Singer's termination notice by asking forgiveness and stating that they would be homeless without this assistance. A motion was made by Commissioner Anna Liisa Covell for the continued assistance with strict guidelines to include mandatory drug counciling and monthly drug-screening reports be submitted to Mr. Singer by Mr. Cabrea's probation officer. Her motion died for a lack of a second. A second motion to terminate assistance was passed by a 3-1 vote, with Covell voting nay. The other item was the 4-0 approval of the portability request by the client, Ms. Aprecio for a transfer back to San Francisco.
Other items of interest on the agenda were the election of officers. Paul Sullivan was elected chairman and Beth Garman as vice chair.
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