HOPES OF RESIDENTS RISE FOR SALE OF TRENTON PARK

Low-income residents of Trenton Park, a 25-building apartment complex in Southeast Washington, have new hope that they will be able to buy the property.

The tenants, who formed the Trenton Park Neighborhood Corp. with plans to rehabilitate and manage the complex, believed until recently that they were nearing their goal after nearly a year and a half of negotiations.

But the Department of Housing and Urban Development broke off talks with the residents' representatives after some HUD officials in the waning days of the Bush administration learned details of the proposed sale and said it was unacceptable.

Now, new talks are underway. Bob Boulter, president of Jubilee Enterprise of Greater Washington Inc., a nonprofit organization aiding the Trenton Park tenants, said he has sent HUD preliminary suggestions for a new purchase deal and hopes to meet with department officials next week to review the proposals. Jubilee is an affiliate of developer James Rouse's Enterprise Foundation.

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George F. Marshall and Gordon Blackwell, two investors who own Trenton Park and a number of other low-income rental buildings insured by HUD, sought bankruptcy protection for Trenton Park last October and signed a purchase-sale agreement and other documents required under federal bankruptcy law.

Robert Warner, HUD associate deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing, said the department "will do what we can from this end" to assure that the sale goes through and hopes to be successful.

"We are exploring a direct, negotiated sale in which we would take possession {of the property} and sell it to" the tenants," Warner said.

The original purchase proposal called for the department to cancel money owed to it by Trenton Park and to allow another lender to be paid first in case of a sale or bankruptcy in the future. Warner said the government "does not forgive debt."

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Warner said the outstanding debt on Trenton Park is about $5.2 million.

A major piece of the financing tenants hope to use in buying the property is $1.3 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board's affordable-housing program, according to Boulter.

Sylvia Martinez, director of the Federal Housing Finance Board's Housing Finance Directorate, said Trenton Park residents will get the financing even though the original deadline for using the money is near.

"We recognize that projects go through many hoops at the local level," she said. "As long as we see progress being made, we'll hang in."

Arthur J. Hill, the outgoing Bush administration's federal housing commissioner, said recently that the unpaid mortgage on Trenton Park totals $5.1 million.

"I'm encouraged, with reservations, that HUD ... will try to meet the new deadline" the bankruptcy court has set for reaching an agreement with HUD, said Katie Fitzgerald, head of the tenants' association. "They reneged on us before ... but they seem to be trying now."

Tenants of Trenton Park, located at Sixth Street and Mississippi Avenue SE, said they have lived for years in deteriorating buildings, which rarely get needed repairs.

Lillian Parker, who has lived in Trenton Park for 20 years, said a hole in a ceiling was repaired after it was shown in a photograph in The Washington Post recently but little other work has been done.

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