Lesson in Perseverance

FLINT, MI – Verna Cowell attended Oak School for seven years and still lives in the same Grand Traverse neighborhood home nearby that she grew up in.
On Friday, Sept. 6, she was at the groundbreaking for a $5 million project that will rehab the old school into a 24-unit apartment complex for low-income seniors.
“It’s wonderful because they were going to tear it down and that just broke my heart,” said Cowell, 75, who attended Oak School from 1943 to 1950. “I’m just so glad that it’s going to be saved and make new memories. Maybe someday I’ll be living there.”
Cowell was one of dozens of people that attended a community walkthrough and groundbreaking at the school at 1000 Oak St.
After years of work by the Flint-based nonprofit Communities First, Inc. to secure federal and state grant funding has resulted in a $5 million project to build 24 apartments for senior housing at the former school at 1000 Oak St.
Local, state and federal officials congratulated Glenn Wilson, the president and CEO of Communities First, Inc.
Wilson’s project was turned down in its first grant application.
“I’m embarrassed to say we made a mistake at HUD,” said Mike Polsinelli, the director of Detroit multifamily hub of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “But we corrected it. We only corrected it because (Wilson) persevered.”
Polsinelli said Wilson urged HUD to reexamine the proposal for the Oak School. When HUD took another look during another grant cycle, Polsinelli said Wilson’s proposal was one of the best.
Communities First, Inc. will work with Connecticut-based New Samaritan Corp. and in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Michigan State Housing Authority, the city of Flint and the Genesee County Land Bank, officials previously said.
The new apartment units will be about 540 square feet, complete with a bedroom, living room, bathroom and functioning kitchen, Wilson said. The building would have to remain senior housing for 40 years.
“When I look at this building, I see the shadows of the past students preparing for the their education and I see the shadows of the future in the seniors who will live here,” said Antonio Riley, the Midwest regional administrator for HUD.
Oak School sits just a few blocks west of downtown, and ideas for reviving it over the years included a mix of office and residential use and community education. A lack of funding has stymied any serious proposals.
More than 22,000 Flint residents were at least 55-years-old, according to the 2010 Census.
Construction will take at least a year, Wilson said, and Communities First will take applications for potential residents two months before the project is done. Potential residents must be at least 62-years-old and meet HUD requirements for low income.
Parts of the building are believed to date to 1898 and an addition built in 1955 includes a community room and a gym, according to MLive-Flint Journal files.
“Oak school is a designated historic structure; therefore, we must maintain the historical integrity of the building,” said Essence Wilson, the vice president of Communities First, Inc.’s board of directors. “That includes leaving the interior essentially as you see it. We will be doing some repairs on the brickwork and also some repairs on the roofing, but the slate roof will remain which is very important when it comes to historic renovations. Inside we will keep the wide hallways and all of the effects of the actual hallway.”
Formerly a Flint elementary school, the district closed it in 1976 due to declining enrollment and it later was home to Community Mental Health programs.