Jeffrey Swanson |
CEO, Valley Affordable Housing Corp.
1. You were appointed CEO in February. What are your goals for Valley Affordable Housing in the next year? VAHC is a nonprofit organization formed in 1995 with a mission to improve the housing stock, assist individuals to become homeowners and provide decent rental housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income people within the state of Rhode Island. … My first goal is to get to know the staff and culture of the organization. I’ve visited nearly all our 15 projects with the goal of getting my arms around the portfolio from both a financial and physical condition standpoint.
2. As the head of an organization that manages most of its properties in the Blackstone Valley region, what challenges or opportunities stand out for housing accessibility in this area compared to other parts of the state? Rhode Island is a relatively small state, so I’m not sure the challenges we face in this region are too different from those faced in other parts of the state. Finding a location for a new project is incredibly difficult. There is a minimal amount of vacant land in the area.
3. Why does VAHC focus on repurposing old properties rather than new construction to improve housing access? Rather than formulate a detailed plan for an affordable housing project and then searching for a suitable site, I typically look for development opportunities and try to determine what type of affordable project is appropriate for that location. To address the state housing issues, the industry is going to need to be flexible and creative.
4. What makes an abandoned property a good candidate for being repurposed into housing and how common is it to find sites that fit these conditions? Adaptive reuse of an abandoned building into housing requires us to look at a lot of things. Is there adequate space on the site for parking? Are there amenities or services located nearby? What are the neighboring uses? Is the existing building structurally sound? Will the size and shape of the building lend itself to being divided up efficiently into individual apartments?
5. How does the time and financial investments needed to repurpose these properties compare to those needed to construct new housing? On average, it is probably slightly more expensive to redevelop an existing building than new construction. Regarding the time involved, I’d say it is probably about the same. With minimal developable land in northeastern Rhode Island, focusing on repurposing existing buildings or sites is pretty much the only, and therefore best, option.
