Old Liberty school might become veterans housing

The Sunnyside Unified School District Board approved an agreement to sell the closed school site at 5101 S. Liberty Ave., to the foundation and its developers for $525,000 in a February meeting.

Amity and its development partner, Gorman & Co. Inc., intend to build 65 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for homeless veterans and their families at the 4.6-acre property.

“There is really no housing for veterans in the area,” Sunnyside Chief Financial Officer Hector Encinas said. “This would be a great opportunity for the district to show its support for veterans.”

Although the nonprofit Amity Foundation is known for its substance-abuse treatment centers, President and CEO Rod Mullen said the new complex will be permanent housing, not rehabilitation.

Amity is still months from breaking ground or even outright owning the property. Though developer Gorman has put down $10,000 toward the sale. Amity still needs to secure $9 million in tax credits from the Arizona Department of Housing to fully fund the project.

“Our commitment to providing safe and affordable housing for homeless veterans is a very strong commitment,” Mullen said. “If this doesn’t work, we will find another way to make it work.”

Site is near services

After the school was replaced with a newer building a few blocks away 25 years ago, the deteriorating 51,000-square- foot building housed professional-development offices and an alternative high school, said Encinas.

But in the last 10 years it’s become an oversized closet for desks, chairs, textbooks and “a bunch of old junk nobody uses,” he said.

Sunnyside considered refurbishing the school, but the asbestos-laced building would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to demolish, and last year a fire burned about a third of the building.

The site is an attractive location for nonprofits because of its proximity to Sun Tran’s Laos Transit Center, child care, El Rio Community Health Center and other services.

Amity first pitched the idea of affordable housing for women veterans in August 2012. The Sunnyside board responded favorably to the proposal and directed its staff to draft a purchase agreement.

An appraisal for the property valued it at $220,000, in part because of the cost to demolish the building.

But Amity had trouble securing funding. For example, where the foundation saw a unique opportunity to serve women veterans, the Department of Housing and Urban Development saw discrimination and rejected the grant application. Amity canceled that incarnation of the project in September 2013.

The Sunnyside board extended Amity’s ability to buy the property until December 2014, and when that offer expired, another group came forward with an offer to build housing for seniors.

The Foundation for Senior Living made a $520,000 offer during a Feb. 18 board meeting. At the same meeting, Amity reproposed veterans housing and offered $525,000.

“This proposal is for veterans of all genders, but it does have an emphasis on families,” Mullen said. “The first and most important service is really safe, supportive, affordable housing.”

The higher offer was based on a new appraisal completed in February, said Brian Swanton, Arizona president for Gorman & Co.

The board approved the offer, and the property will be sold to Amity and its partners once it can prove it has the financial commitment from the state and meets with the community before deciding on a final design.

Amity and Gorman estimated they will know whether they are approved for a tax credit by mid-summer. After that, expanding the old school site into a 65-unit complex with community buildings should take about 10 months, said Amity Foundation Vice President Ray Clarke.

The units will be from one to three bedrooms with full kitchens. The complex will also have several community buildings and residences for staff.

Amity plans to work with the city of Tucson to secure housing vouchers for the complex’s residents.

“It will be a project I think the entire community will be proud of,” Clarke said.