Step into apartment nine of 110 Lady Mary Drive North, in Clearwater, and you will find empty rooms, old carpet and a musty smell in the air.

In the coming months, however, the old carpet will be removed, the walls and kitchen cabinets will be repainted and the apartment will be readied for a renter in need of low-cost housing.

The Dunedin Housing Authority recently bought the apartment and 19 other public or affordable housing units in buildings 110 and 30 Lady Mary Drive North. It plans to accept rental applications in February, although a specific day has not been announced. It also has not decided when tenants will move in.

The units, half of which are in building 110 and half in building 30, are the Housing Authority's first holdings in five year. The agency closed on the deal in November.

The buildings were purchased for $730,000 and will be renovated for another $100,000, all from money the agency has saved up or been given over the years by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"It does feel real good," said David Kelly, chairman of the Dunedin Housing Authority, "because we were really afraid that we were going to lose the public housing money. We've had the money in the bank for so long that we were afraid that, in time, HUD was going to take the money back."

Fifteen of the units are public housing for renters who earn no more than 80 percent of the Average Median Income. The other five, all at 110 Lady Mary, are affordable housing units for renters who earn no more than 150 percent of the Average Median Income. Dunedin residents will be given preference for apartments, although applicants from elsewhere will also be accepted.

The Dunedin Housing Authority is a quasi-governmental agency that is independent from the City of Dunedin and is managed by the St. Petersburg Housing Authority. It gets most of its funding from HUD.

It was created to manage 50 public housing units in Dunedin's Highlander Village, completed in 1970, according to information provided by Audra Butler, spokeswoman for the St. Petersburg Housing Authority. The property was razed in 2005 and sold to Habitat for Humanity.

The high housing cost coupled with shortages in funds and Dunedin homes for sale prevented the agency's purchase of new properties until the two Lady Mary buildings went into foreclosure, Kelly said. The Dunedin Housing Authority has a jurisdiction of a 10-mile radius from Dunedin.

The Dunedin Housing Authority bought the buildings with money from the sale of Highlander Village, five increments of HUD Replacement Housing Factor funds, and public housing reserve funds, Butler said.

Each building contains six 650-square-foot apartments with one bedroom and one bathroom and four 750-square-foot apartments with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

The agency is currently awaiting bids on renovations, which will include replacing bad carpet with waterproof laminate, repainting the kitchen cabinets and walls, replacing the blinds and other cosmetic work.

The agency didn't have a specific day scheduled for the completion of work, although members said it could be finished between February and March.

There's a need for the units, said Bob Ironsmith, director of the Community Redevelopment Agency and the Economic Development department for the City of Dunedin.

"We're seeing people want rentals," he said. "There's foreclosures. There's all these things we're seeing. People are underwater on their homes. People are looking for rentals." 

Once the rental process is started, applicants can apply directly to the development's property manager. A list of the properties that the St. Petersburg Housing Authority oversees, minus the new Lady Mary buildings, can be viewed here.