Posted: Friday, March 12, 2010 8:39 am

A flyer many residents received last weekend claiming a homeless shelter will be placed in or near their neighborhoods is absolutely false, Murfreesboro Community Development Director John Callow said.

“I have been told many residents have received this flyer concerning a home at 2733 Painted Pony Drive,” Callow wrote in a letter to area residents. “I understand the flyer asserts that this home is to become a homeless shelter.

“This is not true,” he continued.

The city purchased the Painted Pony Drive property late last year with funding from its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), a Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) grant program, Callow said. Six more, including the property at 1434 Antebellum, were purchased with money from the same grants. These include 2715 Pepperdine, 2003 Bradyville Pike, 206 Dill Lane, 424 Bragg Ave. and 1452 Westview Dr.

Non-profits that will own the properties include Greenhouse Ministries, The Journey Home, Elijah House Ministries, the Domestic Violence Program and Second Chance Ministries. All seven homes purchased with NSP funding have been vacant due to foreclosure.

The Painted Pony and Antebellum properties were purchased on behalf of the Domestic Violence Program, which will rent to single-family tenants that pose no danger to surrounding residents, according to agency executive director Deborah Johnson.

“The houses presented to us by the city will be single family permanent rental homes,” she stated. “They may in fact be rented by a former client of our agency or a former victim of family violence but I stress the word ‘former’.

“These families will have completed any need for safe shelter and will now be independent households like any other rental tenant,” she added. “The houses may also be rented through normal rental channels with tenants having no previous agency affiliation."

The new non-profit owners will be subject to strict requirements set by NSP’s grant contract with THDA and the terms of loan agreements and restrictive covenants with the non-profit owners, he said. These include the city’s responsibility to monitor the properties for compliance with federal law for 10 years and its ability to call the loans if any are found non-compliant with federal law. Long-term leases (at least six months) at fair market prices and meeting standards for proper property maintenance will also be required.

“Under the terms of our NSP contract with THDA,” the director said, “the city is required to monitor compliance for these properties for 10 years. Part of that monitoring is being sure the property is used for no other purpose than that allowed by the grant.

“We will be monitoring those properties for 10 years,” he added. “If they (non-profit owners) are found to be out of compliance, the loan is in default and I can call it. Then they would be faced with having to give it back.”