Construction will begin on three housing projects in Allegheny County by the end of the year thanks to $2.7 million in tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority (PHFA).
“There will be a significant number of construction jobs and then obviously the jobs that will be necessary in order to run the projects. In total it’s about $33 million dollars’ worth of development so, it will be fairly significant in terms of job creation,” said Dennis Davin, Allegheny County Economic Development Director.
The tax credits will be used to generate private investors through selling low income housing credits, from which the majority of the funds for the project will come.
“[The projects] will bring folks into the communities that will be productive members of the community. Vacant and vandalized properties, [will be] put back on the tax rolls, clean them up, fix them up, and bring them back to productive use,” said Davin, “so we think that this will be a tremendous help to these three communities.”
The projects will be geared to three diverse types of tenants.
- One of the projects in Heidelberg will house people across the autism spectrum. Half of the 42 units will be reserved for those with special needs. The Heidelberg Apartments are being developed by ACTION Housing and won an “Innovation in Design” award for providing transportation, employment and social services opportunities to its residents.
- Serenity Ridge will house the elderly in Plum Borough on a 15-acre property with 62 townhouse units. The building is being developed by S&A Homes and will have a community room, computer facilities and a laundry room.
- The Falconhurst Neighborhood Restoration will be developed by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and will have 33 family units. The project will restore the historic Hamnett Place neighborhood in Wilkinsburg.
This year Allegheny County received more than previous years.
“It’s unusual for us to get approved three projects at one time, so we are very thankful to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, so we did really well this round. Typically we’ll get one, maybe two projects funded, but in this case we got three,” said Davin.
