Monroe and Margaret Parson stand in front of their home at Mission Ridge Apartments. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[07/02/01] Minutes from downtown Vicksburg and just across the street from a late-night basketball hangout, Monroe Parson sleeps soundly for an affordable monthly rate.

“You get a lot for what you pay,” said Parson, 66, a retiree who has lived at the Mission Ridge Apartments since the complex opened June 6 on Mission 66 north of Alcorn Drive. Even though cars pass by constantly and a nearby basketball court echoes until midnight, Parson says the silence is remarkable. “Anywhere else like it, they’d probably ask $700 a month,” he said.

Mission Ridge residents pay $325 to $375 because the apartments were sponsored in 1999 by the Mississippi Home Corporation’s tax credit authority program, which reduces the tax liability of private developers who build low-income rental housing.

But local families like the Parsons will have to wait at least several years before the MHC develops another apartment building like Mission Ridge. The agency has omitted Vicksburg and Warren County from its tax credit authority program for the second consecutive year, prompting one local lawmaker to call for more attention to the area from the MHC.

“The (MHC) board’s actions have been less than pleasing for Vicksburg and the rest of the district,” said state Sen. Mike Chaney, a Republican who represents Warren and Issaquena counties. “We’re pressing for projects in the area, because we’re one of the places that needs them most.”

In its latest round of tax credits, the MHC again passed over Robert Rosenthal, a developer who is trying to convert the former Carr Central school building into an assisted living complex for the elderly. Rosenthal also failed to obtain tax credit authority for his project last year.

City officials said in February that they would buy the Carr building back from Rosenthal if his request for tax credits was denied. North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young, the only returning member of Vicksburg’s city board, declined to discuss the property.

The MHC Board, appointed by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and composed mostly of home builders and lenders from around Mississippi, awards tax credit authority once per year, agency spokesman Theresa Newell said.

Newell said tax credit authority is one of the most popular programs administered by the MHC, which was created in 1989 to open more housing for moderate- to low-income Mississippians.

This year, the MHC authorized more than $4.9 million in tax-credit-funded projects in Coahoma, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Marshall, Sunflower, Tunica and Washington counties.

The tax credit authority program, established at the state Department of Economic and Community Development in 1987, has funded renovations and construction at Deville Apartments, Eden Pointe Apartments, Forest Hills Apartments, Hillside Grove and Rosedown in Warren County. The MHC has administered the program since its inception. Mission Ridge represents the last Vicksburg development built with tax credit authority.

Newell said she doesn’t know if the board will award more tax credits this year.

Dianne Bolen, executive director of the MHC, said many projects in Vicksburg and Warren County deserve coverage by the tax credit authority program. However, she said demand always exceeds the supply of credits.

“If we had the money, we’d gladly fund a lot more things,” Bolen said. “There’s definitely need in a lot of places that we can’t meet.”