Heritage House Hits Hundred% HUD Housing Highpoint

The H-bomb gets dropped in the Truman Neighborhood targeting Heritage House Apartments and the fall out will be around for decades.  In accordance to the new owner/developer’s recent application for financial support through programs with the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC), they are converting all 166 units to Section 8 HUD-subsidized, low-income housing.  This was posted on MHDC’s website 6 months ago so it is actually old news.  Keep in mind, the apartment building had already been 20 percent Section 8 housing for many decades under the ownership of the Community of Christ Church.  The 20-80 sustainable balance of mixed-income senior residents instituted their success in creating community within the building that once even had a waiting list to get in.  This balance, sense of community, and the actual demonstration that the site was viable for market rental rates were the very selling points representing the value of the property to this out-of-town investor hand-picked by the Church.  The new owner/developer even made promises to the Church, the Mayor, the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Heritage Commission, neighbors, and, for that matter, to the entire community in public meetings and under an oath of honesty that they would maintain and operate the facility just like the Church had done.  They even promised to use the same local personnel for on-site management.  Statements were made in public meetings that they were NOT going to ask for additional HUD support.  These commitments and promises were the very foundation of the support they received from the community.   Now all of that has changed.  The moving vans have been very busy moving residents out of the building and out the neighborhood where they were supporting the local economy.  And so this decision was made 1,500 miles away to add 133 low-income Section 8 housing rental units into a historic neighborhood that has been under an award-winning comprehensive M/TRC Revitalization Plan established in the very beginning to reduce government-assisted rental properties in order to improve home values and the marketability of the entire neighborhood, as stated by one of the most prominent city planners in the Midwest region, Ralph Ochsner. This transformation is being implemented with no public hearings, open discussion, and/or the participation of community stakeholders.  Even City Council members who voted in favor of this new ownership and redevelopment plan at least four times have called this transformation “unfortunate” and “uncomfortable” to discuss and have attempted to maintain what appears to be a level of secrecy over the situation.  To make matters worse, the only grocery store within walking distance of the apartment building is also going through its own transformation from providing food and fresh produce to selling alcohol and tobacco products.  It seems almost appropriate that a project that began almost 45 years ago by the forced eviction of residents through eminent domain from their well-maintained historic properties and giving them to the RLDS Church would end up with yet another chapter of deception in the history of this real estate.  As the pages turn and the narrative continues to be written, we have a new landmark and chapter in the story of a struggling presidential neighborhood.