Manteca’s fourth affordable housing complex for low-income seniors will be made possible through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds.
The Manteca City Council Tuesday cleared the way for the developers of the Cottage Village Senior Apartments to work with the California Municipal Financing Authority to sell $11 million worth of bonds to help pay for the project.
The 48-unit complex will be built on the southeast corner of the Cottage Avenue overpass at Highway 99 where an upholstery shop stood for years before being razed. The site is immediately south of the new storm retention basin put in place by Caltrans
The city has already put aside $2,630,000 in residual redevelopment bond sale proceeds that are part of the mandatory 20 percent set aside for affordable housing that was required under state law. Manteca also added $450,000 in pass through housing funds the city obtained from the federal government to help pay for the $14 million project.
Under state law, the city will not be on the hook for a cent of the debt repayment. They just needed to give their blessing to the project to allow a private loan under tax exempt rules to be made to the borrower through their bank. The firm had previously tried four times to secure tax credits but lost out to larger projects in more urban areas of the state.
The complex is envisioned to have 13 single story buildings designed as duplexes and four-plexes housing 48 living units as well as a community center along with a community garden.
They would be rented to seniors whose income is between 30 and 60 percent of the area income. Based on the 2012 Manteca median income of $55,563 those renting the property could need to have an annual income between $16,668 and $33,336 to qualify for the subsidized rents with the monthly charge based on a sliding scale.
Once the complex is completed it would remain as affordable housing for 55 years.
It would have one entrance that roughly aligns with Alameda Street. The complex would have carports for tenants.
The majority of the units would have one-bedroom and one-bathroom units while some will be two-bedroom, one bathroom units. The complex will have solar panels for electricity and solar panels for hit water.
The city’s now-defunct RDA helped fund the Almond Terrace subsidized senior apartments on North Union Road just south of Lathrop Road as well as Magnolia Court on North Grant Avenue north of Bank of Stockton.
Eskaton Senior Manor on Eastwood Avenue in north Manteca just south of Northgate Drive also is a subsidized low-income senior complex.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com