The realty company will be 10 buildings with 9 of them being apartments. The other building will be the realty office. 2 buildings will have the word Commons in the name, and they will be SRO?s only. There will be buildings all ranging from Studios to 3B apartments. In addition, the building manager will have the option to rent a 3B apartment exclusively for their needs. They will pay half rent which will be an incentive, and might even be cheaper than the residence they will have.
With exception of the SROs, all apartments are subsidized housing. Some are under the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section-8), and others will use another HUD Subsidized program where the subsidy is tied to the unit, and not the person. The goal is 35% or less of income to rent. By offering this option, the tenants will have an affordable place to live. However, if they want a larger unit, they will have to pay the difference of the apartment qualified for, and the unit size they wish to have.
For people on low income needing an SRO because they don’t have subsidized housing, they can apply for Section-8, and at least one other subsidized housing program, and assuming they did that, they will receive subsidized rent with their SRO. If someone is only earning $1,000 per month, they will be able to pay $350 rather than $750 which is $400 off. This is consumed by the realty company’s profits rather than any subsidy program that the tenant might have not qualify for. Every January, they must prove that they are still on the waiting list for their applications. The goal is to make the SRO a temporary housing option. If they are looking for something small, then they can choose to rent a Studio.
There will be no houses. FSP Realty believes that part of the housing problem is there are not enough affordable places to live. Building up will help solve this, and will be one of the reasons for FSP Tower. There is a significant number of people that would live there when compared to even a mansion converted into an SRO. A mansion may only be 5 stories, and possibly 10 bedrooms available. There will be 10 units per floor and much higher than 5 stories. With that in mind, houses are not a part of FSP Realty’s portfolio.