Yale Street Commons, a 44-unit townhouse style development in Bridgeport, was constructed nearly 30 years ago and has seen few upgrades in that time. Now, the development’s four buildings are undergoing a complete rehabilitation.
The buildings located in the city’s Lindencroft Historic District will be gutted, according to Renee Dobos, the president at Connecticut Housing Partners (CHP), a nonprofit affordable housing provider that runs Yale Street Commons.
The $19.5 million rehabilitation effort will upgrade the buildings’ interiors and exteriors. New doors, windows, bathrooms and kitchens will be installed. The apartments will also become more energy-efficient.
“The whole skin of the buildings are being replaced. The walls are going to stay intact unless they need some repair, but there'll be new paint, new flooring, brand new kitchens, brand new bathrooms,” Dobos said.
The units will also be fitted with new amenities, including dishwashers and central air conditioning, Dobos said.
The complex, constructed in 1998, is home to about 125 residents earning low to moderate incomes. Residents pay no more than 30% of the area median income (AMI).
For the Bridgeport area, that amounts to about $104,000 annually for a single income household, according to the Fairfield County Center for Housing Opportunity.
Residents won’t see an increase in rent as a result of the upgrades, Dobos said.
“Most of the residents are paying the capped rent already, so they likely will not feel a change in rent, and the IRS releases the annual rent cap annually,” Dobos said. “We just follow that. They really won't see an impact to their rent at all.”
The work, done building-by-building, will temporarily displace existing residents. They’ll move to available apartments at Park City Place, another affordable complex in Bridgeport run by Connecticut Housing Partners, in a former Holiday Inn.
“That's better than putting them in a hotel because each building is going to take about three months, so this way they'll be able to be comfortable,” Dobos said. “They'll be able to cook their own meals, and their furniture will go with them.”
A housing tax-credit will be applied towards the renovations, which are expected to be completed next fall.
Additional funding came from the state Department of Housing, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and $4 million in bond financing.
Two large-scale affordable apartment complexes are in the works for CHP, including a 47-unit Terryville development and a 91-unit Southport project, Dobos said.
Next, CHP has sights set on expanding the organization’s housing portfolio into New Haven County.
The organization recently purchased Clinton Commons, an 8-unit affordable housing complex in New Haven. All but one of the group’s existing affordable housing complexes have recently been upgraded, Dobos said.
“Our focus right now is expanding our portfolio, since most of our assets have already been rehabilitated,” Dobos said.
