LEE COUNTY – The Lee County Board of Supervisors continues to look at ways to divest itself of real estate that isn’t in the county’s best financial interest.
At Monday’s regular meeting of supervisors, the board made a decision to move forward with putting up six properties for sale that were being managed by the Fort Madison Housing Authority.
The Authority is struggling with operations and has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to possibly suspend newly hired Executive Director Michael Dear and a maintenance staffer pending an administrative investigation.
The authority also lost a board member on Monday when newly appointed member Linda Larkin resigned.
FMHA had decided to end its contract to manage the properties for the county earlier this year and now the county wants to move the property into a private entity’s hands. The contract for service from FMHA ends May 14.
Rianne Wood, the county’s Mental Health Disability Services coordinator and CEO of Southeast Iowa Link (SEIL), said the county will no longer have the support of the Fort Madison Housing Authority.
“We have one apartment building and we have townhouses,” she said. ‘We’re highly focusing on Fort Madison because we don’t have property management as of May 14. The Housing Authority will no longer be involved.”
She said as it stands right now, the authority is already hands off on the property, but they are coordinating getting subcontractors lined up for work.
Lee County Auditor Denise Fraise said the property could be put up for sale via sealed bids by the county.
Two apartments are currently vacant, but the rest are full.
Chairman Garry Seyb asked how the county ended up owning the properties. Wood said federal Medicaid wouldn’t provide state and federal allocations to continue the county home. So when that closed, the county had to find capacity in 2001 for those residents to migrate into their own spaces.
The county purchased the properties outright with the exception of Lincoln Ridge where the county created a mechanism for a private 501c3 organization to run, but now the county has control of those operations.
Currently the county has 18 properties in Lee County, not including Lincoln Ridge in Keokuk.
In Fort Madison, county-owned properties are at 617 and 615 3rd Street, 325, 327, 329 and 331 Avenue G, and 313 Avenue G where there are four apartments in one structure.
The county also owns eight apartments in Keokuk.
Tom Schulz said the market value for the apartments in Fort Madison is questionable and they all have congregate living areas.
All the properties are section 8 approved, according to Wood.
Supervisor Matt Pflug said anyone who would purchase the buildings would be eligible for Section 8 funding.
Supervisor Tom Schulz asked for the current building committee to meet again later this week to put together a package to bring to the board for approval with the idea being to move forward to liquidate the responsibility by selling or gifting the property to a non-profit. He said a market analysis wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Wood said a new owner would have the latitude to make the condos family dwellings. Four of the six have three bedrooms.
“But we have them earmarked for people with disabilities so, generally speaking, they were admitting one tenant at the time which wasn’t conducive to keeping the properties filled,” she said.
Schulz said committee discussions centered around not having anyone displaced, so the current living conditions will have to be maintained for whatever period they want to stay there, which decreased the investor value.
“I think it’s the moral responsibility of this group to see that through. Obviously, this group can vote otherwise.”
Fraise said County Attorney Ross Braden advised that anyone buying the property would have to honor the remainder of any leases in place.
“I want to make sure that we’re saying here that to get a few more dollars out of this, we’re willing to take people with significant disabilities and tell them they are out at the end of the year. That’s what I’m hearing,” he said.
The max lease for a single bedroom is $250 per month if the person is Section 8 eligible and then Section 8 assists up to the $250 per month.
“No investor is going to want that. Either we have to make a conscious decision to kick these people out or we need to look at the possibility of gifting that to the city or the housing authority or someone that can continue to utilize it.”
Seyb said the county needs to get the properties listed and get guidance from Braden as to what the county can do with the properties. He asked the building committee to come to the board with a recommendation on the properties.
Wood said two of the townhouses need contractors to work in them before they are ready to lease or rent again.
The issue was voted on and passed unanimously to refer it back to the county’s building committee for recommendation next week.
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