South Bay : FOR RENT?

With a Housing and Urban Development agency contract set to expire soon, the owner of the Inglewood Meadows senior citizens housing project said Tuesday that, barring a major breakthrough, the complex could be closed next year. Meanwhile, Inglewood officials are scrambling to come up with a plan to save the 198-unit project.

“It’s very possible the place will be shuttered by the middle of 1997,” said John MacLaurin, the owner and builder of the 20-year-old complex. A contract with HUD will expire Feb. 12 and under new federal guidelines, rents will drop from $850 to $676 per month, an amount that MacLaurin said would spell financial doom for many of his 20 partners.

The Inglewood Meadows was one of the first projects in the nation to get a special HUD contract that called for the agency to pay rent directly to the developers. Most of the tenants pay $100 to $200 a month, and HUD pays the remainder. Starting in February, HUD will start issuing certificates to the elderly residents valued at about $450 per month that they will be able to use anywhere.

Inglewood officials, however, said that they are committed to save the complex, which is located one block from Inglewood City Hall.

“We don’t want to have seniors out trying to find housing and we don’t want an eyesore of 200 boarded-up units,” Assistant City Manager Norman Cravens said. The city is having the project appraised and hopes to buy the property.

“That’s wishful thinking,” said MacLaurin, who believes Inglewood cannot come up with a big enough offer.