Editorial: Carver apartments

Congratulations to the new owner of the George Washington Carver apartments in Naples' predominantly black River Park neighborhood. Jerry Krueger has followed through with promises to not only maintain the units, but to improve them as well — without nicking city property tax payers or his poor clients.

While the federal government is phasing out subsidies that keep rentals affordable, he and his American Community Developers firm is coming through as a champion. The Carver project's 30-year rent subsidies were due to expire in 2011, and Krueger has secured a 20-year extension. Plus, he has secured more than $1.7 million for repairs and renovations — twice as much as expected when he persuaded City Council, which owns the land underneath, to sell the project to his firm a year ago.

His success is important for the entire community, even beyond the city limits, because without these River Park apartments the tenants would have nowhere else to go anywhere in Collier County.

Plus, when the working poor lose their place in the city of Naples, a part of its spirit has been sold off.

All of us prefer to see the private sector alone address our affordable housing needs. Yet, the Carver project is what federal subsidies are for, and Krueger knows how to work with that.

Krueger's success at River Park is to be celebrated as a ray of light in a dark housing picture. When council members chose a new steward to run the landmark project that is built on their land, they chose well.