HUD Supplies $250,000 in Loan Funds
July 21, 2007; As originally appeared in
The Hour by Patrick R. Linsey
NORWALK —Housing
and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson toured
area low-income and affordable housing developments Friday
with U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays.
Jackson’s
first stop was the 130 Main Avenue development in Norwalk.
The project integrated an historical structure
into a 19-unit ownership development that will include five
affordable units.
As Jackson walked through one of the units, he complimented
the workmanship, gesturing to where the ceiling met the wail
of a third-floor bedroom.
“When you get a house like this and they can make
the lines meet — you have to do a lot of work,” he
said.
The Main Avenue project is being developed by Housing Development
Fund, Inc., a non-profit that seeks to finance affordable
housing. It will include two units for families earning up
to $51,100 and three units for families earning up to $95,900.
The remaining units will sell at market price.
HUD
is supplying $250,000 in loan funds through the Norwalk
Redevelopment
Agency. Shays said the development one of “the
kinds of things you feel good about.”
“When you combine the affordable with the market-rate
(housing), the affordable is going to be as nice as the market-rate,” said
Shays, R-4. “And the market-rate, in order to compete,
is going to have the designer shingles.”
Shays
and Jackson later signed a construction beam at a low-income
development in downtown Stamford. Post House Apartments,
which will include 60 units, is using more than $2.2 million
in HUD’s HOPE VI grant funds.
The development will include resident-support services,
which could include medical and counseling services as well
as employment training. Residents will pay 30-percent of
their income for one- bedroom apartments.
“We want to make sure that, as Stamford becomes ever
a wealthier community, (that) this isn’t just a town
for wealthy folk.” Shays said.
Jackson said HUD is proud of its investment in the project.
“The revitalization of this city comes one beam, one
home, one building at a time,” Jackson said.
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