Housing authority seeks sponsor to fund 9 cottage-style residences in Irwin

The Westmoreland County Housing Authority plans to seek another sponsor for a state application to fund the $2.3 million construction of nine cottage-style houses next to the Grand View Senior Residences.

Irwin Borough declined the opportunity.

The borough council last week rejected the housing authority’s request that the borough sponsor its application to the state Department of Community and Economic Development. The application would partially fund the building of the residences next to the authority’s Grand View Senior Residences apartment building off Laurel Drive.

That four-story apartment building for seniors opened last year and the housing authority views the cottage-style residences for seniors age 62 and older as the second phase of residences on the site.

Councilmen Rick Burdelski, Ron Romeo and Tyler Baum voted against authorizing Shari Martino, borough manager, to apply for the grant for the project, while Shawn Stitely and Frank Rossi supported it. Amanda Morrison had to abstain because she is an employee of the housing authority. Nick Powanda was absent from the meeting.

The agency may turn to Westmoreland County’s community development and housing programs to support an application for the state funding, said Michael Washowich, housing authority executive director. One of the county community development programs is the HOME Investment Partnership Program, which is the federal funding stream that authority officials said they want to tap.

“We remain committed to a full development of quality senior housing on the remaining acreage,” at that 17-acre site, Washowich said this week.

The authority is seeking guidance from the DCED on a sponsor for the application, Washowich.

The housing authority does have some other avenues for funding if it were not approved for the HOME investment funding, Erik Speigel, the authority’s director of architectural and engineering services, told borough council last month.

“It’s not like the project won’t get done because they (authority) have other funding,” Burdelski said.

Burdelski said he did not want to expend the time of the borough’s staff, for work on the housing authority’s project.

The authority planned to pay the borough the time that she and Zachary Kansler, borough solicitor, would spend on project, Martino said.

Baum questioned whether Irwin residents could get preferential treatment for renting a residence in the new development, but Shari Martino, borough manager, said the county housing authority can not guarantee borough residents would get placed in those residences. Baum also questioned whether it was the best of use of the open space on that 17-acre property.

The state is not accepting applications for the next round of funding until sometime later this year, at a date not yet determined, said Justin Backover, a DCED spokesman. HOME funding from the federal government is for affordable housing projects, according to the department’s website.