Business View caribbean - Aug 2023

21 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 8 VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORI TY (VIHA) thereby guaranteeing that the subsidy would be available for 20 years. HUD encourages housing authorities to leverage this tool due to a significant drop in public housing units—from 1.2 million to 900,000—in just three decades. Embarking on a Decade-Long Redevelopment Voyage From HUD’s perspective, the goal is clear: transition housing authorities from public housing to voucher subsidies, allowing them to borrow money and leverage rent to cover debt service. A total of 300,000 units of public housing have already undergone this transformation. “There are 52,000 LIHTC housing developments and 3.3 million low-income housing tax credit units,” states Graham, highlighting the nationwide trend to shift public housing to housing choice voucher subsidies. This innovative strategy locks housing authorities into a 20-year contract, guaranteeing a sustainable revenue source for their properties to replace or upgrade the existing public housing units. “So, the strategy from HUD and the tool from HUD is a very good way to deal with a $90 billion price tag on 1 million public housing units,” asserts Graham. A Future Unfolding: Development Sites Across the Virgin Islands Currently, VIHA has an array of projects spread across different stages of development. Graham details, “There are six under development. Two in construction, two in pre- development, and two in the design stage.” By the fourth quarter of 2024, all these six developments should be under construction— an ambitious yet achievable timeline. The most significant development to look forward to is a $116 million comprehensive rehab project comprising 248 units. “The very first development that we’re going to see units is a project that’s 248 units in Walter I.M. Hodge. And I think it’s 84 units that we will have completed by the end of September,” explains Graham.