Surry County supervisors say they’re on board with proposed renovations to the Surry Village I apartment complex on Lebanon Road.

Rockville, Maryland-based T.M. Associates, which owns the 48-unit affordable housing complex, says it plans to spend $80,000 to $82,000 per unit. At the request of company representative Clark Henry, the supervisors passed a resolution on March 6 in support of the project. Henry said the resolution will help T.M. Associates in its application to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development for financing.

Henry said the company isn’t asking the county to contribute funds or to abate the tax value of the improved apartments.

“We are just asking for, in effect, your moral support,” Henry said.

The DHCD administers an Affordable and Special Needs Housing, or ASNH, grant program that distributes federal and state dollars to fund new construction or renovations of affordable housing units. That grant window opens twice per year, in the spring and fall

According to Bacon’s Castle District Supervisor Walter Hardy Jr., Surry Village I received rezoning and permit approval in 1982 when his father was on the board and his uncle, Thomas, was on the Planning Commission. Hardy made the motion to approve the requested resolution, which passed unanimously.

“I’m all for it,” said Board Chairman Robert Elliott.

According to the Times’ archives from 1982, Surry Village I was built on just under 7 acres. It consists of one- and two-bedroom units and was built by Beacon Construction Co. with financing through low-interest loans from the Farmers Home Administration. The Great Depression-era agency merged in 2006 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency, which continues to develop affordable housing in rural areas intended for farm laborers and other low- to moderate-income tenants.

Henry said that while the proposed renovations would raise the rental rates on paper, the project won’t change what current tenants actually pay.

“The way it works is they pay a certain percentage of their income,” Henry said.

The only way their rents would go up, he said, is if their income changed. Income levels of tenants are evaluated annually, he said.

Henry said T.M. Associates’ goal is to keep most of the tenants on-site during the renovations.

“As leases come up for renewal, we try to shift people over to certain buildings, empty out one building … complete that building, move people in, and then go around the complex,” Henry said.

“If we can’t do that we do put people up in hotels in extended stays. … Some people will want to go stay with relatives, so in that case we give them a stipend,” Henry said. “We do have a relocation plan, though that will become more solid as we progress.”

Subsidiaries of T.M. Associates also own the Jersey Park and Woods Edge apartment complexes in Smithfield, both of which are under contract to be sold to Salisbury, Maryland-based Green Street Housing. Green Street was awarded a $2.3 million through ASNH last year for renovations the company plans to begin this spring at Jersey Park and in 2026 at Woods Edge.