(Washington, DC) – DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Director John E. Hall joined Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, At-Large and Chairman of the Committee on Housing and Workforce Development Michael Brown, and Ward 6 residents to celebrate the grand opening of Milestone Russell on 16th, located at 115 16th Street, NE in Ward 6.
Several years ago, Marian Russell, a tenant of the building, organized a cooperative and sought to purchase the building under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). The Marian Russell Cooperative, named after its founding member, obtained financing for purchase from DHCD. However, after the building was purchased, funding was not available for the rehabilitation of the building. In 2009, DHCD developed an innovative strategy for preserving affordable housing amidst scarce resources that involved the pooling of cooperatives for rehabilitation. DHCD partnered with E&G Group on this project, and E&G purchased five cooperatives that DHCD had funded for acquisition. E&G leveraged private financing for the renovations that the co-ops themselves could not raise.
“This project is an example of how DHCD is using innovative strategies to fund the preservation of affordable housing,” said DHCD Director Hall. “By working with E&G Group to pool resources, DHCD was able to secure additional financing and ensure that each of the cooperatives is renovated for safe, affordable housing.”
Milestone Russell has been completely renovated. The other co-ops included in this E&G project are Sankofa at 1430 Belmont Street NW, Twining Terrace at 2505 N Street SE, New Beginnings at 2922 Sherman Ave NW, and 3121 Mt Pleasant Street Cooperative in NW. The co-op members will become tenants of the apartment properties, but more importantly the co-ops have the right to buy back their buildings from E&G at the end of the financing period. Each building will be renovated. When the project is complete, it will preserve 134 units of affordable housing across the city.
DHCD invested $14 million toward the renovation of all five buildings, including $5.4 million in Housing Production Trust Fund monies and $8.5 million from the Tax Credit Exchange Program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
About DHCD
The mission of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is to create and preserve opportunities for affordable housing and economic development and to revitalize underserved communities in the District of Columbia. DHCD fulfills its mission by providing gap financing; increasing first-time homeownership opportunities; providing funding to rehabilitate single-family and multi-family homes; supporting communities through neighborhood based activities; providing funding for homelessness prevention; addressing vacant and abandoned properties; and overseeing the administration of rental housing laws.