After three years and more than $30 million, the largest and most troubled apartment complex in West Sacramento has been transformed into a place where low-income families can live in comfort and security, reports the Sacramento Bee. Mayor Christopher Cabaldon and developer Cyrus Youssefi plan to cut the ribbon today on Courtyard Village, a complex of 300 renovated apartments. That address was well known to local police, who responded to calls from residents on a nightly basis.
Crime, drugs, fights, abandoned cars and other problems were the norm there, and the buildings were falling apart. Youssefi, with a record of rehabilitating troubled properties, stepped in and agreed to buy the apartments in 2006. His firm, CFY Development, spent more than $30 million, taking advantage of an $8 million federal tax credit for rehabilitating low-income housing. The city contributed $2.5 million to the project in a public-private partnership that the parties said was the largest of its kind ever completed in the city. Similar projects may follow, city planners said Wednesday.