- Wilmington’s Northeast community receives $50 million federal housing grant.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant will assist the Wilmington Housing Authority in building 552 mixed-income units.
- Wilmington Housing Authority officials say the funding helps accelerate the project completion, reducing the timeline from over 20 years to less than 10.
A $50 million infusion of federal housing funds will help accelerate construction of new mixed income units in Wilmington’s Northeast neighborhood.
The Wilmington Housing Authority was awarded the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday, putting Delaware’s largest city among seven other communities across the country to receive the federal funding.
Housing authority Executive Director Ray Fitzgerald said the money will go to building housing and developing other supportive programs and services in the Northeast community.
“The main purpose of the funds are to support the renovation and revitalization of the Riverside housing development and transition it over to Imani Village housing development,” he told Delaware Online/The News Journal in an interview ahead of the news conference announcing the grant.
The first phase of Imani Village opened to residents last year in Riverside, a mixed-income redevelopment project spearheaded by REACH Riverside.
Fitzgerald said the efforts are made possible through partnerships with developers and investors that allow the public housing entity to leverage other funding streams, like low-income housing tax credits. So far, 141 homes have been built, he said.
The goal is to build another 552 housing units in the coming years, Fitzgerald said.
“Those units will include some homeownership units, some rental units and they’ll also include some affordable housing and market rate housing units,” he said. “The goal is to have a community that looks like the city and not just lump a whole bunch of poor folks together.”
Federal grant accelerates development timeline
Fitzgerald said the HUD grant helps accelerate completion of the project, which prior to the funding, would have taken over 20 years to complete.
Now, he said they anticipate completing the project “in less than 10 years.”
The housing authority has nearly 300 low-rise public housing units in the Riverside community that it is decommissioning. As new housing units come online, Wilmington Housing Authority residents are moved into the new homes, Fitzgerald said.
The project is structured whereby the investor or developer owns the building but the land the homes are built on remain under housing authority ownership. This gives the Wilmington Housing Authority the opportunity to buy back the homes after 15 years, Fitzgerald said.
HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in a news release said the housing authority and city have “demonstrated their commitment to neighborhood revitalization” having undergone a comprehensive local planning effort.
“This public investment, which represents the maximum amount for grants targeting smaller housing developments, will give local officials the resources they need to achieve their vision for Northeast Wilmington,” Fudge said.
More funding needed
The award does not negate the need for additional funding, however, Fitzgerald stressed.
The housing authority executive director said he estimates the project still needs an additional $200 million to finish.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator for HUD Matthew Heckles, who once served as chairman of the Wilmington Housing Authority’s executive board, described the grant as a “once-in-a-generation investment” that will “leverage over $400 million through public and private resources.”
The federal housing agency’s Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant funds mixed-income housing communities, improves economic development opportunities and supports wide-scale revitalization efforts focusing on “housing, people, and neighborhood.”
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @mandy_fries.
IMANI VILLAGE OPENS:Residents move into first phase of Wilmington mixed-income development
REACH RIVERSIDE FUNDING:How $10 million will help Wilmington’s Riverside take the next step in redevelopment
HOUSING CRISIS:Why new affordable housing in Delaware is rented out well before the ribbon is cut
