From major redevelopment efforts to sustaining homes for low- and moderate-income households, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is gearing up for a busy year.
“I think 2018 will be even more active than 2017,” says Aaron Gornstein, president and CEO of the Boston-based nonprofit. “We expect to either acquire or bring online about 2,000 units in the next year or so.”
Culminating POAH’s successful five-year Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) efforts in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood will be the completion of Woodlawn Station, a 70-unit, mixed-income, transit-oriented development with ground floor retail, in June. This final on-site component includes deeply affordable Sec. 8 units transferred from the distressed Grove Parc Apartments.
After developing 700 units of mixed-income housing, a resource center with job training for the community, homeownership opportunities, and other community amenities, POAH is beginning its next chapter in Chicago post-CNI.
“We’re going to continue our efforts to revitalize the neighborhood by helping to create good job opportunities for residents and assistance to small businesses” says Gornstein. “We are now turning our attention to commercial development as Jewel-Osco begins the construction of a 48,000-square-foot grocery store and POAH redevelops a key commercial property across from our new Woodlawn Station development.”
With about 40 low-income units to replace from the original plan, POAH has a project in the pipeline to fill that need and is seeking the funding for it. It also recently purchased two affordable housing properties a few blocks from the planned Barack Obama Presidential Library in Jackson Park to ensure long-term affordability in East Woodlawn.
Its work in the Woodlawn neighborhood is something POAH is replicating in other parts of the country.
“The key is engaging neighborhood organizations and stakeholders early on and developing a comprehensive plan that will attract both public and private investment,” Gornstein adds.
POAH is poised to put those tools in place with two other neighborhood transformation initiatives. At the end of February, it broke ground on the first phase of the Whittier Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to redevelop the Whittier Street Apartments site, public housing built in the early 1950s, in Roxbury, Mass. The nonprofit also will transform the Barry Farm public housing site in Washington, D.C., into 1,400 mixed-income units. It expects to start partial demolition this summer and begin construction of the first phase of the residential portion in early 2019.
Also in the works are plans to purchase an affordable housing portfolio in Cincinnati, six Sec. 202 senior housing properties in Chicago, and an expiring-use property in Bedford, Mass.
“We’re always actively looking for new opportunities so we may add more to that in 2018,” he adds.
