Olneyville Housing Corp. planning $9M project

THE NONPROFIT Olneyville Housing Corp. has purchased 14 residential properties over the past year in the area of Amherst and Chaffee streets, and will renovate the buildings to create more affordable housing. / COURTESY OLNEYVILLE HOUSING CORP.
THE NONPROFIT Olneyville Housing Corp. has purchased 14 residential properties over the past year in the area of Amherst and Chaffee streets, and will renovate the buildings to create more affordable housing. / COURTESY OLNEYVILLE HOUSING CORP.

PROVIDENCE – The nonprofit Olneyville Housing Corp. has purchased 14 residential properties over the past year in the area of Amherst and Chaffee streets, and will renovate the buildings to create more affordable housing.
Most of the structures are two- and three-family houses, which had fallen into disrepair, according to Frank Shea, executive director of the Olneyville Housing Corp. The properties are not contiguous.
The real estate project, to be called Amherst Gardens, is expected to cost about $9 million. It would be about the same size as Olney Village, the most recent redevelopment project completed by the housing organization.
The proposed renovations will produce 36 apartments, of which five will be rented to homeless families now assisted by the House of Hope, Shea said. Seven of the properties purchased by Olneyville Housing were foreclosures. Four more were short sales, Shea said.
The organization has applied for federal low-income housing tax credits, which would allow Olneyville Housing to seek additional financing through investors.
Olneyville, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Providence, was hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis in the past decade, Shea said. The organization tries to acquire highly visible, neglected properties, which act as gateways to the community, in an effort to spur private investment. “We focus on corner lots and the biggest nuisances,” Shea said. “If you can focus on the biggest nuisances, private entry follows.”

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