15 November 2007
Dear Fellow CUCC Members and Friends,
At the congregational meeting on 2 December 2007, the congregation will be asked to endorse the signing of a letter of re-commitment to the support of RICH Park Apartments.
The facts to consider in this decision are these:
Yours truly,
John J. Little, Moderator
Dear Fellow CUCC Members and Friends,
At the congregational meeting on 2 December 2007, the congregation will be asked to endorse the signing of a letter of re-commitment to the support of RICH Park Apartments.
The facts to consider in this decision are these:
- CUCC is one of five Raleigh churches that established the Raleigh Inter-Church Housing Corporation (RICH) to create and implement the RICH Park Apartments forty years ago and contributed $500 to that effort;
- RICH Park was one of many similar non-profit developments in the nation that received financial support from the federal department of housing and urban development (HUD);
- In July 2008 HUD will terminate the program under which RICH Park and many other non-profit low income housing projects received financial support;
- Also in July 2008 RICH Park will have the obligation to pay the mortgage that HUD holds on the property. To make this payment, RICH Park will take out a new mortgage and pay it off with rental income from the apartments;
- The RICH Park Board of Directors, the property management company retained by the board, and an ad-hoc committee of the board have provided a fifteen year financial projection. The projection concludes that RICH Park will experience its financial future securely in the black by following its tradition of prudent management and conservative assumptions;
- The RICH Park property is currently valued at $5 million, which assures the five churches of the project’s viability and mortgage companies that RICH Park is a worthwhile investment from their perspective;
- Four of the five churches have signed on to continue this important ministry;
- CUCC Council has voted to join the other four churches;
- The RICH Park Board does not view the letter of re-commitment as a contract. It instead sees it as an endorsement of the “leap of faith” which the five churches originally entered into to provide housing for low income people. Any of the five churches can pull out of the agreement at any time, but none has done so for forty years. A copy of the Letter of Re-commitment follows on a separate page.
Yours truly,
John J. Little, Moderator