HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority is looking to acquire the former San Vicente Catholic School, which closed its doors in Barrigada more than a year ago, to use the facility for community outreach services.
GHURA Deputy Director Fernando Esteves said the agency plans to use federal funding under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for the acquisition.
Acting Gov. Josh Tenorio said Wednesday that the governor’s office and GHURA have been charting a path to acquire the school and envision it to be a community outreach center with multiple services for multiple vulnerable populations.
Esteves said it was important to ensure that whatever federal funds are spent on it would be an eligible activity under the block grant.
“One of the important things is identifying problems we know we already have in the community. And one of them is understanding that the nonprofits that are providing services to our community are overstretched. And how do we look long term to incubate and allow other nonprofits to start developing?” Esteves said.
“We wanted to provide that concept for nonprofits, also provide a place for government agencies to be able to provide essential services,” he added.
San Vicente Catholic School closed in early August 2022 in response to low student enrollment. The Archdiocesan Finance Council, the Presbyteral Council, and the College of Consultors all recommended shutting down the school because of insufficient enrollment. The Archdiocese of Agana would not have been able to support San Vicente financially, Tony Diaz, director of communication for the archdiocese, said at the time.
The Catholic school operated for 67 years before closing.
Esteves said Wednesday that GHURA is currently engaged in an environmental assessment, which is a requirement to utilize its grant funds under the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Obviously, the pressure is there. We really want this initiative to go forward, but that is ultimately going to depend on what comes in the environmental (assessment) and making sure that everything is aboveboard before we commit the funds towards it,” Esteves said.
Although the assessment is pending completion, federal funds have already been set aside for the school’s acquisition. But the final purchase price isn’t certain yet.
“Just like anybody else, since it’s out there on the market, we would put in an offer. So that’s not certain what the final price is going to be. A lot of that too is also going to depend on the appraisal. The thing about CDBG is there is a solid requirement that we don’t pay above fair market. And that’s going to be based on an appraisal that GHURA is going to order. … Under only very extreme and rare cases can (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) grant us a waiver to go above that,” Esteves said.
Tenorio said they started looking to acquire the facility after Typhoon Mawar. He said he’s told the archdiocese that the government is interested in the facility.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to solve two things: making sure there isn’t a derelict building that happens (and) getting additional capacity for the community to get more services,” Tenorio said.
The closed San Vicente Catholic School campus as seen in Barrigada Dec. 6, 2023.
