---

---

Before he scooped up the first shovelful of dirt on one of Crescent City’s new housing developments, Mayor Blake Inscore said his community is doing things others wish they could do.

Breaking ground on Battery Point Apartments, a 162-unit apartment complex that will provide homes for seniors and families, is a dream that, Inscore said, many might not have believed would come true a decade ago. That dream becoming a reality is due, in large part, to Housing Authority Director Megan Miller, he said.

According to the mayor, Miller’s willingness to research project-based housing vouchers is a major reason why he and his colleagues, Crescent City staff, planning commissioners and three Del Norte County supervisors donned hard hats and manned golden shovels on Tuesday.

“Much of the progress we’re doing in housing right now is a direct result of Megan’s willingness to take what sort of sounded like a crazy idea from an old politician, do the research, bring it back and give us a vision for how we can provide housing for the people in Del Norte County and Crescent City,” Inscore said.

Located behind Joe Hamilton Elementary School at Gary and E streets, Battery Point Apartments will offer 162 new units. Forty new units will be for seniors, 30 units will be for low-income families and 90 units will be for workforce housing, said Bill Rice, chief development officer for Synergy Community Development Corporation.

Synergy, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, has teamed up with another nonprofit organization, San Clemente-based Step Forward Communities, to offer exercise rooms, senior community gardens, green spaces, a playground and community rooms in the apartment complex.

According to Rice, no senior will pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent. That’s up to $400 to $500 for a one-bedroom apartment or $600 for a two-bedroom, he said.

Families who are considered very low income will also pay no more than 30 percent of their income on rent, Rice said. Workforce families whose income is 70 percent of the area median income will pay roughly $1,200 to $1,500 for a two-to four-bedroom apartment, he said.

“What we’re excited about is if you’re a family of four making under $61,500 you’ll qualify to live here at these reduced rents, and this will stay affordable for 55 years,” he said. “It’s not going to change. It’s not for Airbnbs. It’s for the community. It’s for all of you.”

The 162 units Battery Point Apartments is bringing to Crescent City are part of more than 300 in various stages of development within city limits. The two nonprofits received 70 project-based housing vouchers in December 2022 from the City Council, who was acting as the Crescent City Housing Authority Board of Directors.

A few months before receiving those project-based vouchers, the City Council had authorized a Housing Authority proposal to issue request for proposals for new development in the area.

That City Council support allowed Synergy and Step Forward Communities to receive a $7.5 million Infill Infrastructure Grant, a state program that aims to expedite the development of affordable and mixed-income housing in California.

For Miller, seeing a groundbreaking ceremony on new housing in Crescent City is a big deal. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Housing Authority’s success rate through its Housing Choice Voucher program was 52 percent. However that rate plummeted during the pandemic, Miller said.

“Eviction protections that went in stopped the availability flow,” she told the Wild Rivers Outpost. “Typically when you have one family moving out, you have another family that had been issued a voucher to backfill that. That stopped [and] there was just nothing.”

At that point, the Housing Authority turned its focus on issuing project-based vouchers instead. Project-based vouchers are a component of a public housing agency’s Housing Choice Voucher program. However, instead of being given to an individual family, those vouchers stay with the development itself.

In August 2022, Miller told city councilors that clients who are eligible for a Housing Choice Voucher can also apply to take advantage of the project-based housing voucher program.

On Tuesday, she said that project-based vouchers are a good way to bring new development to the area.

“Large-scale developers, which is what you want,” she said. “The more units you bring, the more people you can house and we found a good partner in Bill Rice.”

According to Miller, once the units are ready to be rented, the Housing Authority will create a waiting list for potential tenants. She said the latest estimate she had on when the senior apartments will be ready for occupancy is March. If that pans out, she said she expects the waiting list to be available in late winter.

One amenity at Battery Point Apartments Rice and his colleague, Duane Henry, Step Forward Community’s executive director, is excited about is a mobile dental clinic that will offer annual services to tenants.

According to Henry, the company offering the service is Frontline Dental, which travels across California. They also offer monthly health education, he said.

“They are very people-oriented and they get to know their residents very personally,” he said. “We bring them on as advocates for the residents, not just for the dental care [and] the health education, but if you’re having problems cleaning you apartment [they’ll] get you some education. That’s more a one-on-one thing.”

As construction on the apartments continue and they’re closer to being occupied, Henry said Step Forward and Synergy will start engaging with local community resources.

Other local housing developments in production include the Danco Group's Harbor Point Apartments senior housing on H Street and Roosevelt Estates for moderate-income families on California Street.

---

SHARE →