$14 million housing project fights blight near 13th, Hydraulic (+video)

A $14 million affordable housing project has replaced broken-down fourplexes around 15th and Kansas with a gated community of new duplexes.

Mennonite Housing, which completed a similar project at Ninth and Madison in 2009, will announce the completion of its French Quarter project on Thursday.

Officials are reluctant to say their $14 million affordable housing project has transformed the neighborhood. There is more work yet to be done, they say.

“Eight or nine years ago, no one had the courage to take a chance on this community,” said Tommy Benford, property manager at French Quarter. “I’m most proud of the fact that Mennonite Housing had the fortitude, the vision and the insight that, with the right mix, we could come in and be successful in northeast Wichita … and eliminate the blight.”

From broken-down to built-up

Drugs, violence, dilapidation – all were common in the area around 15th and Kansas as recently as five years ago.

Benford said it was one of “the highest crime rate areas in northeast Wichita” while the 31 fourplexes were around.

The owner of the fourplexes sought help from Byron Adrian, CEO and president of Mennonite Housing, who decided it would be impossible to salvage the buildings.

Mennonite Housing helped manage the buildings until it could line up the funding to buy the land, raze the buildings and build new, Adrian said.

The first phase of the project was completed in 2013 at a cost of $6 million. The recently completed second phase cost $8 million.

“The bulk” of the funding for both phases – about $9 million – came from private investors who purchased tax credits for the property, Adrian said. Most of the rest comes from mortgage loans or various grants, he said.

With the completion of the French Quarter project, there are 78 units available – or, rather, there were 78 units available.

The project is at 100 percent occupancy, Benford said, and 40 to 50 families are on the waiting list, hoping for a vacancy.

“We completed it in December, and it was completely full at the end of February – within two months,” Adrian said. “That’s not the norm.

“Seeing how quickly it rented up and how many folks still on the waiting list … tells us let’s look and see if there might be additional opportunities in the area.”

Mennonite Housing is a nonprofit organization that serves people in need of affordable housing. It builds homes for people to buy as well as manages hundreds of tax-credit units in the region.

It does not have any plans for future developments in the area, but it is open to the possibility if land becomes available, Adrian said.

“There’s obviously demand for this in this area,” he said. “If we were able to find additional land in this area, we would go through and see if we could continue with what we started here.”

‘You want to help’

Andrew Howard, 53, is quick to give tours of his new two-bedroom French Quarter unit at a moment’s notice.

Howard and his wife moved into their unit in December, among French Quarter’s first residents.

Units at the French Quarter range from $335 per month for a one-bedroom to $660 per month for a three-bedroom.

“I fell in love,” he said. “I’m very picky about where we move, and I found nothing wrong. Literally everything was perfect – the rooms, the space, I was blown away from it.

“I was like, ‘OK, where do we sign at?’”

Howard, who in retirement works as a mentor with inmates at the Sedgwick County Jail, said Mennonite Housing is not just “building nice houses – they’re building a community.”

“It’s really a blessing to meet people that have a vision for peoples’ well-being, even (when) they don’t have it for themselves,” he said.

“… People don’t just want to come in and help. When they do, you want to latch on to them and you want to help.”

French Quarter is a gated community, and its residents are given a remote-controlled gate opener when they sign a lease.

The gates are intended partially to keep out the crime that plagued the area in years past, but also to foster a sense of community among French Quarter residents, Benford said.

“It allows the community buy-in – it provides them with a greater sense of control involving their own sense of security,” Benford said. “As a manager, you can enforce the rules and apply all the policies that are at your disposal, but you have to have buy-in by the residents. They have to be willing to police themselves.

“When you operate in these types of extreme environments, knowing what was here before this came about, it takes all of us pulling together in order to make these kinds of properties a success.”

Effect on the neighborhood

The French Quarter project is the most recent of many projects intended to remove blight in poverty-stricken areas of Wichita.

Benford said the $14 million of new construction around 15th and Kansas should have a “domino effect” on the neighborhood.

“Our family outside of this immediate community, you will see them beginning to revitalize their own property – doing upgrades on their lawns, getting new siding put up on their house, doing renovation to the greatest extent they can from a financial aspect,” he said.

“… When you see something nice around you, it makes you want to clean up the things you have that you didn’t have a pride in before. The sense of pride continues to spread, and it’s very effective.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 9:51 PM with the headline "$14 million housing project fights blight near 13th, Hydraulic (+video)."