News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Highlands Residential Services Board concerned over the Oak Tree Towers 2025 fiscal year budget.
Cookeville Housing Authority Executive Director Dow Harris said the Oak Tree Towers budget has largely been impacted by subsidies. Harris said he expects to see a big cut in subsidies next year, which could cause issue.
“I kind of ran some cash flow numbers,” Harris said. “With this budget and the subsidy only about $60,000 for Oak Tree Towers for twelve months beginning in January. We are estimating that we are going to run in the red right now about $7,000.”
Harris said he is not comfortable with $60,000 as a budget for a whole year. Harris said he will have to do some research as he does not have a good answer on why there will be a significant cut in subsidy.
“We will research that and determine exactly what’s what and be prepared to give a good solid answer on why the subsidies reduced so much for Oak Tree Towers,” Harris said.
Board Member Donna Rice asked what they could do if Oak Tree Towers continued to run at a negative cash flow. Harris said they are currently trying to move the Oak Tree Towers to section eight housing to benefit the budget.
“The best business model for us is section eight, when you look at the 207 side of Cookeville we know exactly what contract is going to give us,” Harris said. “Here we are having to budget three months ahead of what HUD’s going to tell us what are subsidy calculation is going to be or what congress is going to appropriate so really we are trying to hit a moving target.”
Harris said unfortunately the process to turn Oak Tree Towers into section eight has been very slow. Harris said he expects that Oak Tree Towers will turn to section eight three to five years from now.
“It’s not internal it’s just that HUD is just moving so slow,” Harris said. “I think more people are involved in trying to capture the rad of section eight. We are getting everything in and we are waiting for them to click the button in the electronic system that gets us over to the next page so we can go further. It’s frustrating.”
