OHFC dedicated to affordable housing

Jan. 27—Think you can't afford a decent place to live and groceries? You're not alone, but Jill Miller and Ashleigh Amonett are doing their best to prove you wrong.

The two women hold the top two positions at Odessa Housing Financial Corp, an organization that has been devoted to building affordable homes in Odessa since 1979.

The organization started under the auspices of the City of Odessa and later became a separate organization that has continued to partner with the city, various other organizations and lenders. They converted Lincoln Towers, a former hotel that was in foreclosure, into a retirement community. They built the first apartments on the UTPB campus and they've built 300 houses all over town.

OHFC is also responsible for the Estates on 87th Street, a 181-unit apartment complex, and the newly opened Vera Apartments on Highway 191.

In addition, OHFC is also in the process of having a 200-unit apartment complex built for seniors over 62 and disabled people over 55. They'll start taking applications for it in May and folks can expect to move in late July, early August.

To give you an idea of just how eager people are for affordable housing, Miller said the apartments on 87th have a five-year waiting list and has had since the day it opened. OHFC hopes to add at least another 250 units to the property soon.

Vera Apartments, which just held its grand opening in December, only has 58 of its 288 units left, she said.

Here's the way it usually works, thanks to the Housing Finance Act passed in 1979, OHFC can issue bonds and organizations, usually banks, buy the bonds to get a tax credit, Miller said. OHFC then takes the money they earn off the bonds and with an FHA loan making up the difference, they build homes or apartment complexes.

The homes are then sold or the apartments are then rented to people who qualify for them based on their earnings and a complicated formula involving median average incomes, Miller said.

The beauty of the Vera Apartments is they are located within the city limits of Odessa, but they're in Midland County, where the median average income is higher.

"Which means for us, for the first time, we have teachers, firefighters and police officers who can make more money and live here because we went off of Midland's income," Miller said.

The rents range from $543 to $1,700 at Vera, Miller said.

Some people have a misconception about affordable housing, especially when it comes to apartments, Miller said. They may immediately think about "projects" depicted in Hollywood movies where the apartments are poorly built, cramped, run down and inhabited by criminals.

Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to 87th and Vera, she said.

Each apartment is roomy and has granite countertops, some hardwood flooring, walk-in closets, a pantry, stainless steel appliances, garbage disposals, dish washers and washers and dryers.

Their residents are also vetted, Miller said. No one with an arrest record can qualify.

"We do everything we can to make them want to live here and to make them as proud of this community as we are," Miller said. "That's what happened at 87th and we believe it'll happen here at Vera."

Both apartment complexes have playgrounds, a dog park and barbecue grills and a state-of-the-art club house with WiFi, a fully-outfitted 24-hour fitness center and kitchen. They also have a conference room and education center.

For the price of a refundable $50 fee, residents can rent the club house, which is available to residents during business hours the rest of the time.

But what makes 87th and Vera extraordinary are the programs Amonett has put together for them with the help of a lot of community partners, Miller said.

Students can come in after school for snacks thanks to the USDA and the West Texas Food Bank, hop on computers to do their homework and receive tutoring from volunteers from the Ector County Independent School District, the local colleges and the complex itself.

There's also an after school summer program and they partnered with the Ellen Noël Art Museum and D.R. Horton to put on a six-week art program.

Their parents can attend adult education programs, Miller said.

OHFC formed its own nonprofit organization that offers credit counseling and homebuyer education classes the residents can take advantage of, Miller said. They've also offered financial literacy classes by partnering with banks and free health screenings and health classes by partnering with Medical Center Hospital and Odessa Regional Medical Center.

"Every quarter we try and do something different," Miller said. "We want you to be physically fit, but with credit counseling and financial literacy, we want you to be financially healthy, too."

Last fall, they partnered with the Odessa Family Christian Faith Center to put on a back-to-school backpack program at 87th and they also provided turkey dinners on Thanksgiving, Amonett said. They hope to find a partner to do the same at Vera.

At Christmas time, they partnered with a great number of organizations to make sure every child received gifts, Amonett said.

"Our staff goes in and sits with each kid individually and helps them fill out their wish list. We look at sizes if they don't know their sizes and our staff hand wraps every present. We made over 500 sugar cookies this year and 12 pounds of butter cream frosting," Amonett said.

The Christmas Wishes program started at 87th Street after Amonett told Miller about a child who didn't have a bed. They later realized he didn't have any shoes or underwear either.

Miller was immediately reminded of her late son, Hunter, who once brought her a drawer full of socks and underwear to donate to a family in need at Christmas time. He'd been inspired by his older brother, Austin, who had donated his lunch money to the same family.

"Hunter said 'Would this help the little boy? I don't need to wear underwear or socks,'" Miller said. "It instantly was like 'We need to do more. It needs to be bigger. So who else needs something, besides this little boy?'"

The first year they did Christmas Wishes, 168 kids at 87th received gifts, Amonett said.

What they've done is create communities at 87th and at Vera and they are proud of that, the women said.

"There's a word called NIMBYism, Not in My Back Yard," Miller said. "They don't want you to have those people in their backyard. We spent $70 million (on Vera). Everybody around here, their taxes just went up. They didn't go down. It's the amenities. It's what you choose to put in. It's the management. It's the rules you have in place. It's the communities and the programs you put in place and what you establish in it. If you give back to the residents, if you build a community, you do not have a project, you have a community and that makes all the difference in the world."