NRHA seeks private-activity bonds for Broad Creek and Tidewater Gardens redevelopment; council presses for relocation plan

Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials presented two private-activity multifamily bond requests at the council work session on Dec. 25, seeking financing to renovate and rebuild public-housing sites as part of mixed-income redevelopments.

Deborah Stevens, NRHA chief housing and real estate officer, summarized Broad Creek plans: the project will include 88 total units, with 64 units converted to Project-Based Rental Assistance through the RAD program, nine market-rate units and the remainder financed with low-income housing tax credits. Stevens said renovations will include full interior and exterior work and that NRHA will hold a long-term ground lease. "Tenant will pay 30% of household income" under the RAD conversions, Stevens said, and NRHA described tenant rights to return and eviction protections that apply.

Steve Morales, NRHA vice president of real estate, outlined Tidewater Gardens / Kindred Phase B2 as a 101-unit project that includes 47 replacement units. NRHA provided a project timeline: NRHA final action around February 2026, financing closings in mid-2026, construction and renovation running through 2027–2028.

Councilmembers pressed NRHA on operational details and resident impacts. Councilmember Page asked about a heating outage at Calvert Square; NRHA said 18 units remained without heat, that residents have been offered hotel stays, onsite transfers and rent concessions, and that subsurface boiler piping failures and weather delays had complicated repairs. Councilmember Johnson sharply criticized NRHA for bringing large requests at the last minute, requested a "master plan" for relocation and sought clarity on what NRHA meant by a "checkerboard" relocation approach, ground-lease terms, and how rents might change after renovation. "You continue to bring to the council at the last minute asking for approval for your projects," Johnson said.

NRHA staff said replacement units in Kindred Phase B2 are project-based Section 8 (project-based vouchers) rather than traditional public housing slots and explained that those units are not tenant-transferrable in the same way as tenant-based vouchers.

NRHA estimated up to $9,000,000 in multifamily bonds for Broad Creek; the transcript contained an apparent mis-transcription of the total development cost (TDC) for Kindred as "$51,000,000,000," which NRHA did not clarify during the session. Because the figure appears inconsistent with project scale, the precise TDC is not specified in the transcript and should be confirmed with NRHA records before publication.

Next procedural steps NRHA listed include internal final action in early 2026 and finance closings mid-2026; councilmembers sought additional community engagement and clearer relocation and tenant-protections detail prior to any formal council approvals.

The council did not take a formal bond vote during the work session.