Overhaul of units nears end

Yearlong renovations are nearly complete at the Rutledge Hills apartment complex on U.S. 60 at the Amherst town line, which is owned by a nonprofit corporation that specializes in providing affordable housing for low-income people in the Southeastern United States.

All 48 of the Rutledge Hills units are being renovated, which is funded by a $245,000 award from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and financed locally by BB&T, said Melissa Byrd, a spokeswoman for the Christiansburg-based Community Housing Partnership Corp., and the bank.

The corporation owns or manages more than 4,700 rental units in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, Byrd said.

“It enables people to live in the community where they work,” Byrd said. Residents earn 60 percent or less of the area median income and otherwise would have problems obtaining housing. “It’s a rural and an urban issue,” she said.

Communities often have turned to affordable-housing units to help residents such as first-responders, teachers and other public employees find affordable residences near their jobs, Byrd said.

The corporation bought the approximately five-year-old complex in 2007, and it is managed by Jeff Rowe, a former police officer who still teaches law enforcement courses.

Occupants who qualify will earn very low, low and moderate incomes and typically already live in communities where such housing becomes available.

The funding was included in nearly $2 million awarded to finance 308 affordable units statewide and is part of $43 million the bank is providing to create or preserve a total of 4,514 units in 10 states. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta’s members are commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, thrift and loan institutions and insurance companies in six other states and the District of Columbia.

The bank is one of 12 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank system.

Rutledge Hills is one of eight communities statewide to receive the funds.