Rhode Island Housing announces $2M in funding to assist in creation of 145 affordable homes

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Housing has announced six recipients of more than $2 million in 2014 federal Home funds.
The funding will aid the production of 145 affordable homes and apartments in the communities of Burrillville, Exeter, Providence, North Kingstown and Tiverton.
“The Home program is one of our most flexible and effective tools we have for developing affordable homes,” Richard Godfrey, Rhode Island Housing executive director, said in a statement. “With this recent award of Home funds, Rhode Island Housing has used the program to finance the construction or rehabilitation of 4,473 affordable homes in 593 developments, located in all 39 Rhode Island cities and towns. This is a significant investment in our state, its families and the communities in which they reside.”

The recipients are:

  • Church Community Housing Corporation for Apple Creek Apartments in Tiverton, to substantially rehabilitate a 28-unit, mixed-income family rental development. Work will include new roofs, stair towers, kitchens, baths, windows, HVAC system and photovoltaic installation. Eleven Home rental apartments will be leased to families at or below 50 percent median income in the area, including three reserved for formerly homeless households.
  • Habitat for Humanity South County for construction of a single-family residence on a rural property that will provide a permanently deed-restricted, handicap accessible, two-bedroom homeownership opportunity for a household earning at or below 60 percent of median income in the area.
  • Neighborworks Blackstone River Valley Fernwood/USDA Self-Help Homeownership initiative in the Pascoag section of Burrillville to construct seven three-bedroom homes for families earning between 50 percent and 80 percent median income for the area as phase I of a larger USDA Self-Help Housing development that uses a “sweat equity” model. Homebuyers are preapproved and collaborate to build all seven houses.
  • Omni Development Corporation’s Phoenix Renaissance development in Providence, which includes construction of new and rehabilitation of existing buildings to create 57 apartments for homeless and/or at-risk households. Eleven of the units will be Home assisted.
  • Sankofa Apartments in Providence’s West Elmwood neighborhood, which will transform the brownfields site of a fire-destroyed factory into new homes, gardens and community center. In addition to 50 new homes for families, the developer, West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, is introducing an agricultural component to include a community facility and an urban farm. Of the 50 new rental homes, 11 apartments will be assisted through the Home program.
  • Washington County Community Development Corporation will acquire and rehabilitate a vacant home along Tower Hill Road in North Kingstown to provide two two-bedroom rental homes for families earning at or below 60 percent median income for the area.

Each year, Rhode Island Housing receives approximately $3 million in federal Home funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“The creation of good homes in our state involves a number of important funding programs on the federal and state level. These funds, in addition to creating safe, healthy, affordable homes for Rhode Islanders, will also create good jobs in our hard-hit construction sector,” Carol Ventura, Rhode Island Housing deputy director, said in a statement. “Home funds will leverage over $29 million in public and private investment for the development of these homes. This also represents a significant investment in the Rhode Island economy, particularly the construction industry.”

Home funds serve Rhode Islanders earning no more than 80 percent of HUD’s median income for the area.
Home funds finance both rental and homeownership opportunities and are used to acquire property, rehabilitate existing properties and construct new affordable homes, according to a news release from Rhode Island Housing. The federal Home Program is the largest federal block grant to state and local governments designed exclusively to create housing affordable to families with low and moderate incomes.

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