The years of crime and neglect reached a peak in February 2000 when a multi-jurisdictional team of drug enforcement officers raided the site, arresting 21 suspects and taking 10 children into protective custody. Shortly afterward the City’s Building Official, accompanied by representatives from Shasta County Child Protective Services and Environmental Health, conducted an inspection of the apartment complex, issued the property owner an abatement notice, and red tag all vacant units.

 
Meanwhile, the property owner had stopped making mortgage payments and the bank holding the note initiated foreclosure proceedings on the property. Within a short time, the remaining units were vacated and the property was boarded up and abandoned.

In July 2000, the Agency formed its Southwest Project Area to respond to blighted conditions in the City’s downtown area largely resulting from the decline of the local timber industry. The new project area had no cash to invest in the Anderson Oaks Apartments, but the Agency Board nevertheless initiated discussions with the bank to acquire the property. After considerable negotiations, the Redevelopment Agency acquired the property in August 2001 by providing a promissory note in the amount of $1,050,000.

The City of Anderson, with a population of only 10,000 people and fewer than 60 city employees, had no housing or redevelopment staff, had no tax increment revenue in its treasury, and had no experience with low-income housing developers. Nonetheless, the Agency — as the new owner of a dilapidated, boarded up, downtown apartment complex — embarked on a rehabilitation project that was essential to revitalizing the downtown and meeting the goals of the project area.   Continue »