Northern Marianas Housing Corp. Program and Housing Division manager Zerlyn. A. Taimanao told Variety that NMHC is planning to rename the Rota Liyo housing project.
“We still want to change the name and get community input,” Taimanao said.
Instead of Liyo, the agency, she said, is looking at giving the project a more “catchy” name to attract potential occupants.
She said they are thinking of renaming the project similarly with Mihaville and Koblerville on Saipan.
Asked on an update on the number of occupants, Taimanao said 15 of the 30 units are occupied.
She said, “We are trying to increase occupancy over there.”
Despite one occupant moving out, Taimanao said the occupancy rate remained at 50 percent as the project was able to get one occupant.
“One person moved out for various reasons and another came in. At least we didn’t lose one,” she said.
She also told Variety that the NMHC, through its field representative on Rota, continues to focus on its efforts to address the low occupancy rate by way of advertisements.
But there are factors beyond NMHC’s control.
As some potential occupants raised a concern with the project’s distance from the hospital, among other institutions, Rota residents could hope for a better mass transportation on the island.
As NMHC could not relocate the project, Taimanao shared her optimism that the island would be able to get better transportation.
“Rota needs more public transportation. Hopefully they will get the same services we have as far as public transportation,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program wait list remains closed.
“Our limit for the whole CNMI is 363. We can’t go over that,” Taimanao said.
The majority of the vouchers are being used on Saipan, she said.
As of fiscal year 2010, the HCV program was able to use 341 vouchers, 42 of which went to applicants on the wait list.
The audit revealed that the HCV was attractive because of the program’s “portability” — the applicant’s ability to choose a unit in an area of his or her choice.
The same audit showed 24 used of the 50 HCV vouchers made available by the U.S. Human and Urban Development to Rota.
According to the same report, Tinian has had one voucher of the 341 CNMI vouchers.
Although the record states that there’s only one HCV voucher for Tinian, some of 42 vouchers awarded to those on the wait list were issued to Tinian residents.
Taimanao confirmed to Variety that some of those with HCV vouchers on Tinian used their vouchers to reside on Saipan.
