Historic Section 8 housing renovated again
By Alvin A. Reid Of the St. Louis American
Richard Baron’s commitment to affordable housing for elderly and low-income St. Louis residents is now in its second generation.
Incorporated in 1973 as McCormack Baron and Associates, his firm is now McCormack Baron Salazar.
Baron’s company is celebrating the re-opening of The Washington Apartments at 600 N. Kingshighway and the ribbon cutting for the first AARP satellite office in a residential development in Missouri.
The Washington Apartments was the first of the firm’s development projects when it was rehabilitated in 1979, and it has completed a second renovation.
“I’m particularly proud this morning because this was our first project literally 30 years ago,” Baron said last Wednesday.
“I suspect we are one of few that had used the federal historic tax credit a second time on the same development.”
The apartment building includes 99 one-bedroom Section 8 apartments for the elderly. Its first floor was gutted during the rehabilitation and now has a fitness center, expanded laundry, community room and the AARP satellite office.
“To come here and look at this livable community is fantastic,” said George Rowan, a national AARP board member who helped with the ribbon cutting.
“I can’t wait to get back to Washington, D.C., to talk about what happens when there is the will to do something. That will is here.”
Baron said the apartments cost between $200 and $300 a month and that the nation’s challenge is “to create affordable housing for elderly and low-income families.”
“There has been no housing policy (passed in Congress) for 50 years,” he said.
“It is an extraordinary issue that no one talks about. We must remind (presidential) candidates that housing is an important issue.”
James Heard, HUD St. Louis office director, commended McCormack Baron Salazar for “brining this project back to life.”
He said the Section 8 contracts on the 99 units for 20 years are important because “there are a lot of lofts and apartments at market rate. Low-income and the elderly are being forgotten.”
“We have to think about everyone in totality. We have to think about diversity,” Heard said.
Aldermen Terry Kennedy’s family moved into the neighborhood in 1962 and, he said, “I saw the first renovation.”
“It now remains an anchor. It is a part of the fabric of the 18th Ward. We appreciate the commitment to this neighborhood,” Kennedy told Baron.
Mayor Francis G. Slay echoed the sentiment that “it is important to provide affordable living opportunities for seniors and low-income people.”
Slay said, “Richard Baron has been at the forefront.”
Baron said his firm currently has 3,000 units in the city of St. Louis. Since 1996, the firm has closed 39 phases of HOPE VI developments in St. Louis and 11 other cities involving 4,977 units and $753 million in total development costs.
Baron said, “We’re proud to make St. Louis our home and we’re proud to be here.”
