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Great Falls Housing Authority plans big renovations

Posted: Jul 14, 2011 1:01 PM by Jen Hollenbach (Great Falls)

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The Great Falls Housing Authority has quite the construction schedule planned for the near future, despite a drop in capital funding this fiscal year.

Kevin Hager, executive director of the agency, noted, "Congress took it down about 16%, which takes it down to about $805,000."

Despite the decrease, there is a big renovation project planned.

Hager explained, "What we're going to be doing over there, it's probably going to be a 15 year project that we're going to be committing each year's capital funds to...our oldest housing stock of 156 units in the Parkdale area that were finished in 1940s...so it's going to be a total renovation of those units. We'll basically take them down to the studs and rebuild from there."

But they'll be doing more than just refurbishing the current units; Hager says that once the project is completed, the interior of the units won't be recognizable.

He said, "The housing stock back in the 1940s was much different than it is today - smaller rooms and more congestion. So what we're going to do is make it more livable to today's standards...to where we'll be opening up the kitchens and living rooms and maybe some breakfast nooks so you have more livable space."

The ultimate goal for the Housing Authority is to provide an apartment that exceeds people's expectations of public housing.

Hager said, "When we renovate properties, we renovate them to the standard that we should move in tomorrow."

All capital funds are expected to go toward the 156-unit project.

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