Friday, March 29, 2024

City Council votes to deactivate Brewster Housing Authority

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BREWSTER –  At their regular meeting Wednesday, August 8, members approved a resolution to deactivate the Brewster Housing Authority that once managed the 13-building, 25-home Vista Park Homes housing complex, the city’s only Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) property at 509 S. Fourth Street.
Following discussions between Brewster city attorney Chuck Zimmerman and Okanogan County Housing Authority (OCHA) administrators, the city elected to transfer ownership of its only low-income property to the OCHA, which administers several properties in the county.
On July 12, 2017, a fire caused by youngsters playing with a lighter, ignited screening vegetation and spread to the Vista Park residences, destroying two of the complex’s 13 buildings. At the time, transfer paperwork was still being processed but the property was fully insured.
As the transfer progressed the Brewster council had to appoint a three-member committee to authorize the remaining steps as management and ownership changed hands.
“The Brewster Housing Authority is being deactivated because our property has already been transferred to the Okanogan Housing Authority,” said city clerk Misty Ruiz, “so there’s really no point in having this empty because it’s now part of Okanogan Housing Authority.”
Ruiz, with help from city attorney Zimmerman, performed the requisite work to keep the BHA in regulatory compliance while it was under Brewster’s mantle.

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