Green Gables is helping meet the affordable housing needs of families in the small, rural community of Greenville, Ill.
The 40-home subdivision is important in an area that has had little affordable housing development in the past 20 years. Overcoming some early neighborhood opposition, Green Gables is home to more than 100 of the community’s approximately 7,000 residents.
“It’s an asset to the entire area, and people have realized that,” says Claudia Collins, executive director of the Bond County Housing Authority, which co-developed the homes with Patchwork, a nonprofit established by the housing authority.
Green Gables features two-, three-, and four-bedroom single-family homes to serve different household sizes. The project also reaches different income levels with homes targeted to families earning no more than 30%, 50%, and 60% of the area median income. Fourteen homes have project-based Sec. 8 vouchers. In addition, there are four accessible homes for the disabled. These units are part of the state Referral Network, which targets families that were homeless or at risk of being homeless.
Overall, about 48% of the residents at Green Gables are disabled, according to Collins, who notes that a majority of people able to work have jobs.
The single-story houses have attached garages, side patios, and in-unit washers and dryers. They are built around a square that features a community area with a playground, a ball field, a picnic area, and a community garden.
The housing authority was committed to building single-family homes as a way to create homeownership opportunities in Greenville, which is about 45 minutes from St. Louis. The project, also known as Bond County Homes, gives renters an option to purchase their houses after 15 years.
The $10.6 million development received low-income housing tax credits from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The credits were then syndicated by Cinnaire to raise about $9 million in equity for the project.