MERCER COUNTY Housing authority plans building improvements

Handicapped-accessible and one-bedroom apartments top the list.
SHARON, Pa. -- The Mercer County Housing Authority has targeted two projects it hopes to fund through a loan taken out with eight other housing authorities across the state.
L. DeWitt Boosel, executive director, told his board Wednesday that the addition of between four and six handicapped-accessible apartments to the Malleable Heights apartment complex and the conversion of eight efficiency apartments at Vermeire Manor into one-bedroom units are the projects he is proposing.
The first involves all new construction at a cost estimated between $450,000 and $500,000, while the second involves additions to existing buildings at a cost estimated at $700,000, he said.
The authority is under pressure from the U.S. Department of Housing & amp; Urban Development to increase the number of handicapped-accessible units at its apartment complexes.
It's an expense the authority can't afford out of its annual federal capital improvement grants of about $1.2 million, which are used for apartment complex modernization projects, Boosel said.
Finding funding
The loan, through a bond issue, could provide the needed funds for the special apartments at Malleable Heights on Spearman Avenue, he said.
The authority has 42 efficiency apartments at Vermeire Manor on Columbia Street, and it is hard to keep them all rented, Boosel said, explaining there is more of a demand for one-bedroom units.
The board had given Boosel permission to borrow as much as $1.95 million through the joint bond issue.
The two projects he has in mind should come in around $1.2 million, he said.
The nine housing authorities expected to participate in the bond issue are looking at borrowing a total of about $50 million, Boosel said.