Housing Profiles: Tenant-Owned Affordable Housing in DC Secures $30M in Financing

This Housing Profile, excerpted from the Commercial Observer, highlights a public-private partnership that is in part made possible by a jurisdiction’s commitment to funding the production of quality, affordable housing. The inclusion of local funds enables the project to go beyond the typical LITECH, or tax credit, affordable housing model, a federal program that is limited to offering rental units with income and rent limits tied to the Area Median Income. The Lock 7 Development in DC’s Sheperd Park will provide current tenants an ownership opportunity. A housing trust fund in Prince William County could enable us to take a fresh look at housing solutions that meet the needs of our workforce.

KEITH LORIA JULY 12, 2022 2:16 PM REPRINTS

SHEPHERD PARK APARTMENTS.RENDERING: LOCK 7 DEVELOPMENT

The residents of the 7428-7434 Georgia Avenue Tenants Association exercised their rights under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act to obtain the existing three-building complex last year.

Lock 7 Development is heading the $33.7 million redevelopment, which will include demolishing the two-story apartment buildings currently on the site and constructing a new building. All current tenants have been relocated as part of the agreement with the developer.

When completed, Shepherd Park Apartments will include 66 apartments, all affordable.

Additional financing for the property, at 7428 Georgia Avenue NW, will be provided in the form of an $11.7 million loan from the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development’s Housing Production Trust Fund.

“The appeal of the development will be the opportunity to live in newly constructed, modern apartments, owned by tenants in a complex, at rental rates based on the residents’ incomes, located in an amenity-rich neighborhood,” Christopher E. Donald, executive director and CEO of the DCHFA, told Commercial Observer.

The new Shepherd Park Apartments will consist of 10 efficiencies, 34 one-bedroom, two two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom apartments reserved for residents earning from 30 to 60 percent of area median income. Thirteen of the units will be designated as “permanent supportive housing,” designed to help the chronically homeless… (Continued)

Read Full Story: Tenant-Owned Affordable Housing in DC Secures $30M in Financing – Commercial Observer