Fremont, Calif.—Even living in a community with one of the largest deaf populations in Northern California, many hearing-impaired residents of this town east of San Francisco felt isolated. Read more
Canoga Park, Calif.—Confronting two of Los Angeles’ greatest needs at once, Tierra del Sol took the bold step of combining affordable housing with a charter school. Read more
St. Cloud, Minn.—By combining soft debt with innovative construction to keep down costs, the Al Loehr Veterans and Community Studio Apartments is able to serve its mission of housing veterans and others at risk of homelessness. Read more
San Antonio—A home for teenage mothers and their babies had to turn away 250 girls and their newborns last year because of limited space. Read more
San Marcos, Calif.—When The San Elijo Hills Development Co., a master developer inexperienced with affordable housing, faced new inclusionary housing rules on its latest development, it turned to Bridge Housing Corp. for help Read more
Easthampton, Mass.—A new intergenerational housing model seeks to stop foster children from being bounced from home to home. Read more
Carlsbad, Calif.—In a ritzy new master-planned community at the edge of a world-class golf course and resort sits a 180-unit complex of low-rise stucco structures. Read more
Los Angeles—The Rainbow Apartments is a valiant effort by Skid Row Housing Trust to serve Los Angeles’ neediest at a time when market-rate loft developers have pushed into downtown, snatched up the available properties, and begin gentrifying the area. Read more
Irvine, Calif.— By allowing more families to live near where they work, a new affordable housing development promises to ease traffic congestion and improve the quality of life in one of Southern California’s major employment centers. Read more
Bronx, N.Y.— The PSS Grand Family Apartments helps its elderly tenants take care of their children’s children. Read more
Houston—Living in an abandoned, haunted hospital atop a pre-Civil War cemetery is something that, for most people, is the stuff nightmares are made of. But for the artists living in the renovated Jefferson Davis Hospital here and the residents in the surr Read more
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in July that it would provide more than $5 billion in new Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for five Gulf Coast states recovering from last year’s hurricanes in addition to the Read more
As I was working with our editors on profiles of the 32 finalists in our Readers’ Choice Awards competition for this issue, I was amazed by the wide range of excellent projects our industry has delivered. Read more
San Diego—Prices for low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) have dropped from their recent lofty peaks, and they may dip even further, according to speakers at the recent National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) conference. Read more
From a large tax credit project incorporated into a luxury golf course community by virtue of inclusionary zoning to small projects targeted to special needs groups, the finalists in AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine’s second annual Readers’ Choice Awar Read more
Stamford, Conn.—Private developers, city officials, police officers, and neighbors all came together to help turn Southfield Village, a troubled public housing project, into the new mixed-income neighborhood called Southwood Square. Read more
KANKAKEE, ILL.—A half-empty, crime-ridden property here that had entered foreclosure was rescued and rehabilitated through the combined efforts of a preservation-minded developer, lenders, and federal, state, and local officials. Read more
Danville, Ill.—The New Holland, a 101-year-old building that once housed the local elite in this small town, was rescued from crime, decay, and abandonment last year and is now fully occupied by low-income residents. Read more
Boulder, Colo.—Public housing agencies in many cities are looking for innovative ways to deliver affordable housing, but this city’s authority jumped further out front than most by undertaking land development to subsidize its own operations and create a Read more
ST. LOUIS—By making its units accessible and usable to all residents regardless of any physical limitations they may have, the 6 North development here is being cited as a model for other urban projects. Read more
Pittsburgh—By combining 60 units of seniors housing over 7,000 square feet of commercial space on the site of a former public housing project, Fairmont Commons is providing both affordable housing as well as a catalyst for further revitalization of the em Read more
CHICAGO—A new low-rise community of housing and retail units is reconnecting sections of this city’s Near West Side that had been long divided by a concentration of public housing projects. Read more
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.—Summer Street Condominiums and Apartments is a model for smart-growth, mixed-income developments in smaller communities. Read more
Cleveland—Before it was rescued by National Church Residences (NCR), the Villa St. Rose of Kirby Manor (Kirby Manor) was headed straight to default and eventually to the auction block. Read more
Ontario, Calif.—New apartments being built here by Simpson Housing Solutions, LLC (SHS), are helping alleviate the shortage of affordable independent housing for seniors, one of the fastest growing segments of the population in Southern California. Read more
Gilbert, Ariz.—A city at the edge of one of the nation’s hottest retirement communities has made affordable housing for seniors a vital part of its downtown expansion—and it has put its money where its mouth is. Read more
Las Vegas—In a city where luck is not always on the side of developers, the successful opening of Silver Sky Assisted Living this summer was nearly a sure thing thanks to solid backing from key state and federal legislators and several state agencies. Read more
Seattle—After a natural disaster made its oldest building uninhabitable, a Seattle nonprofit that serves the homeless found a way not only to restore the historic structure, but also to provide a new type of housing for the population formerly served by i Read more
San Francisco—The city’s neediest residents have found a home at a new development that brings together housing and health services. Read more
LOS ANGELES—Blighted industrial buildings in an old warehouse district here were razed to make room for the first new development here in a decade. Read more
San Francisco—The Curran House feels like it is a world away from the gritty neighborhood outside its doors. Read more
Oakland, Calif.—Oakland Com-munity Housing, Inc. (OCHI), has found a way to create homeownership opportunities on small urban infill sites that are often tough to develop with affordable housing. Read more
Seattle—A landmark in the Capitol Hill community here has been preserved as the centerpiece of an award-winning affordable housing project. Read more
Newport, R.I.—50 Washington Square, one of the oldest supportive housing communities in the country, is still on the cutting edge. Read more
Baltimore—After serving the community for nearly 82 years as an orphanage and special education school, St. Elizabeth Convent has found yet another purpose: affordable housing. Read more
Boston—The carefully built townhouses and mid-rise buildings at Maverick Landing seem almost designed to rebut critics of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) HOPE VI program by delivering an on-time, under-budget new community that r Read more
Sacramento—Thanks to a concerted effort by this city’s political and housing leadership, Read more