Affordable housing projects in Rhode Island receive $185 million in loans

• 173.3 million dollars will be granted as low-interest loans
• $11.8 million will be used for a debt service reserve

PROVIDENCE – The RI Housing Board voted last week to issue $185 million in bonds to cover low-interest loans for 11 income-restricted housing projects totaling 869 units.

RI Housing will issue the $185 million in two bonds. The first will be worth $88 million, with pricing expected to be announced later this month. The remaining bonds will be issued by the end of this year or early 2025.

After the bonds are issued, RI Housing will use the money to issue low-interest loans for 11 projects for which the company has already approved loans, in time for the closing of the deals.

Of the 869 units, at least 399 are being renovated, while 470 appear to be new construction units.

Of the $185 million to be issued in bonds, $11.8 million will be used as debt service reserves, while $173.3 million will be issued as low-interest loans.

These projects receive loans

• Sommerstrasse Apartments, Providence: 42 million US dollars loaned for the 176 units Project being built by Crossroads Rhode Island on Summer Street. The apartments will serve as permanent housing for formerly homeless people. Once construction is complete, residents of Crossroads' current home, The Tower at 160 Broad St., will move into the new apartments. The 176 single rooms in The Tower will be converted into 80 apartments.
• Park Holm Phase IVNewport: 11.4 million US dollars as a loan for the fourth phase of the rehabilitation of a 262 unitsSocial housing project in Newport with additional housing units. The loan will be used for the demolition of 74 housing units and the creation of 51 terraced house units. In the fifth construction phase, the replacement of the demolished units is planned.
• The avenue, Providence: 16 million US dollars be borrowed for 85 units. The income-restricted project is being built by nonprofit developer ONE Neighborhood Builders at the corner of Atwells Avenue and Knight Street, across from the towering Church of the Holy Ghost, in Federal Hill. The new apartment building will include 39 units, while another 46 units in 13 buildings in Elmwood will be renovated. The two projects have been linked together to have a better chance of receiving scarce state funding.
• Potter TigraiProvidence: 8.7 million US dollars be borrowed for 57 unitsThe income-restricted project of the non-profit developer SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property) includes the Renovation of 37 residential units and the Construction of 20 new units in 11 buildings on various vacant lots in South Providence. The 20 new housing units are designed for people earning 30-60% of the area median income (AMI).
• Reynolds Farm Senior Residence II, North Kingstown: $8.75 million in the form of loans for 40 income and age-restricted housing units. In 2021, Phase I was completed with 40 units. The income-restricted housing units are part of a larger three-phase, market-rate planned community on 78 acres with 600 units. The income-restricted housing units were part of the city's approval of the project.
• Houses on Broad StreetCentral Falls: 11 million US dollars be borrowed for 44 units in two buildings across from each other by nonprofit developer ONE Neighborhood Builders. One is a new build on the site of a former Dunkin' and the other is a conversion of a former police station and courthouse.
• Ade Bethune House, Portsmouth: 13.6 million US dollars in the form of loans for a 54-unit apartment complex, including 80% of the area median income and age-restricted (55+) units, and a senior center at 110 Bristol Ferry Road.
• Lockwood Apartments Phase 1Providence: 12.3 million US dollars loaned for the renovation from 108 units. Phase 1 involves the 108 townhomes in 17 “garden-style rowhouse buildings” at 50 Prairie Ave. in South Providence, while Phase 2 involves the renovation of the 101 units in the adjacent high-rise. The apartments are limited to households earning 60% of the area median income, and 80% are assisted by Section 8 housing certificates. The developer is WinnCompanies LLC.
• Mountain villageProvidence: 11 million US dollars loaned for the renovation from 42 units in the three-building apartment complex in Silver Lake, near the Pocasset Manor complex. The developer is Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc., or POAH.
• Pocasset Mansion, Providence: 15 million US dollars loaned for the renovation from 82 units in the 11-story senior living complex in Silver Lake. The developer is Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc., or POAH.
• Village of HillcrestProvidence: 23.5 million US dollars loaned for the renovation from 130 units in the 130-unit, six-story apartment complex in Mount Pleasant, built in 1979, at 40 Leander St. Renovations include new kitchen cabinets and countertops, modern lighting, new doors, a new roof, wireless Internet access and improvements to the units in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.