) - Fueled by a massive surge in COVID-19 relief funds, the city is kicking off a multimillion-dollar affordable housing binge that will last several years.
Stimpson said the city traditionally got about $1.5 million a year in federal funds form the Community Development Block Grant program to preserve and build housing. But with COVID-19 relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act and other sources, that total has swelled to $61 million. Single-family houses on Rickarby Street. The city is negotiating a land swap with the Mobile County Public School System and providing $4 million in incentives for private developers to build 26 to 32 single-family houses at the site of the former Woodcock Elementary Street.
“The challenge really is finding the property, you know, that’s suitable to put housing on, and then crossing all the hurdles that you have to,” the mayor said. Frazier said she is stuck there, unable to afford rent in a private apartment. She said she has been waiting for a year for the Mobile Housing Authority to issue an emergency relocation voucher to move into subsidized house. She said she hopes she would be eligible for one of the city-sponsored programs.