bvc_june2017

78 79 Glidden Congratulates Robert Graham , Managing Director at the Virgin Islands Housing Authority (VIHA) Recognize for: Best Practices of Business and Economic Development USVI. Glidden and PPG Products Available at: Glidden Store, St Croix: 340-773-3124 Glidden is a product of the PPG Group of Companies. ©2015 PPG Industries. All Rights Reserved. MICHAEL P. HAND & ASSOCIATES Mr. Robert Graham CPM and Sta Members and Employees continuing success in Making our Housing Community a BETTER place to live ! ! 340.514.7222 n handusvi@yahoo.com Never needs watering or cutting! Looks green all the time. Pictures available at the Buccaneer Hotel St. Croix and a private soccer field east end of St. Croix. 15-year guarantee with over 40 different types available. NEWEST PRODUCTS: SYNTHETIC GRASS Sold exclusively through Michael P. Hand & Assoc., St. Croix, USVI n Design Build n Specialist in maintenance-free products n Newest products available n Owner Agent n Construction Management Rebuild and Refurbishing n Training your staff to use and install our different products Michael P. Hand & Assoc. has been serving the Caribbean since 1976 providing the following services: congratulates PREFERRED VENDORS n SM@RTNET www.smartnet.vi SM@RTNET is the only homegrown Internet Service Provider in the U.S. Virgin Islands, offering High-speed Internet access for businesses, government, and residential customers. Its service packages range from 1Mbps up to 1Gbps. Depending on a customer’s location, service can be offered via Next-Genera- tion wireless, DSL, or even Fiber Optics. With the largest staff of certified engineers in the USVI, SM@RTNET also offer services such as MPLS, managed network services, video conferencing and custom network integration. n Pittsburgh Paints www.ppgpittsburghpaints.com n Michael P. Hand & Associates Inc. handusvi@yahoo.com THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORITY waiting list over 100 applicants,” he states. “We’re very proud of the development. So, we are holding to our vision to get into produc- tion 75 to 100 units per year. Sometimes that might stretch to 18 months, but between 12 and 18 months, we expect to get a project into production–basically to replace the older, public housing developments which are 60 years old.” Meanwhile, Graham touts the fact that VIHA’s programs, heretofore, have been very successful in leveraging private development dollars into housing construction. “In terms of development, the Housing Authority will have utilized $12 million in low-income housing tax credits to leverage $120 million of private equity to develop over 300 units of affordable housing,” he reports. “So our repositioning and redevelopment plan is being implemented and it’s having a significant effect on the type of affordable housing that we are providing in the Virgin Islands.” Now that a new administration has tak- en over the reins of HUD, Graham remains hopeful that funding for VIHA’s programs and constituents will not be appreciably dimin- ished, despite some of the talk coming out of Washington, D.C. “We expect that saner minds will allow the status quo in terms of funding for both public housing and vouchers,” he avers. “You have eight or nine million people whose rent burden is more than 50 percent of their income and any cuts in the HUD budget will exacerbate that. It would be a lot of dis- placement of individual households and assistance for households. But, I don’t think the cuts that they’re proposing for HUD will happen; the folks with some common sense in Congress will not al- low those cuts to be as draconian as the rhetoric suggests.” As of this moment, Graham stresses that VIHA is “sound, both financially and operationally, effective and efficient in terms of operations, and in the forefront of providing affordable housing in the Territory.” Hopefully, that characterization will remain extant, far into the future.