Featured Stories
- Webster Street - Mutual Housing Featured Story
- Mortson Street Featured Story
- Rice Heights Featured Story
Webster Street - Mutual Housing
Webster Street Mutual Housing, developed by Mutual Housing Association of Greater Hartford (MHAGH) is home to 30 families like the Flores family who graciously posed for this photograph. The development includes 3 and 4 bedrooms apartments, a community center and a new playground. At Webster Street, families work together with MHAGH and their property manager to manage their community, while paying affordable rents for high quality family apartments.
Additionally, preserving a turn-of-the-century Victorian structure was also desired. In order to accomplish these goals, Mutual Housing demolished one building for parking, and partially demolished another building for open space. Because the Victorian structure did not easily convert to multi-family housing, it was preserved and utilized for resident community space and management offices.
This development transformed three large blighted apartment buildings into a thriving community in the Barry Square neighborhood of Hartford. The apartment buildings were in foreclosure and were vacant when MHAGH first identified them. They worked closely with neighborhood residents and the Maple Avenue Revitalization Group to create a plan that would meet the needs of the neighborhood. The new plan reduced the number of apartments, allowing them to increase the size. It also called for increasing open space and providing adequate parking.
MHAGH utilized a variety of financing sources for this project including Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, State Tax Credits, state and city funding, support from Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a Federal Home Loan Bank AHP award, LISC loans and bank investment as well. The total project cost was $4.2 million.
Additionally, preserving a turn-of-the-century Victorian structure was also desired. In order to accomplish these goals, Mutual Housing demolished one building for parking, and partially demolished another building for open space. Because the Victorian structure did not easily convert to multi-family housing, it was preserved and utilized for resident community space and management offices.
This development transformed three large blighted apartment buildings into a thriving community in the Barry Square neighborhood of Hartford. The apartment buildings were in foreclosure and were vacant when MHAGH first identified them. They worked closely with neighborhood residents and the Maple Avenue Revitalization Group to create a plan that would meet the needs of the neighborhood. The new plan reduced the number of apartments, allowing them to increase the size. It also called for increasing open space and providing adequate parking.
MHAGH utilized a variety of financing sources for this project including Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, State Tax Credits, state and city funding, support from Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a Federal Home Loan Bank AHP award, LISC loans and bank investment as well. The total project cost was $4.2 million.
Mortson Street
This $8.6 million development involves the renovation and new construction of 64 units of owner-occupied housing in a two block area of Frog Hollow bounded by Mortson Street, Putnam Heights and Park Terrace. It includes the renovation of 16 blighted but architecturally significant Perfect Six structures for sale as single- and two-family townhouses and the development of 10 in-fill two-family homes. The first phase of this project is now complete and all homes have been sold. The second phase of development is now underway on Putnam Heights.
Mortson/Putnam Heights serves as a model of how homeownership development can revitalize a neighborhood. This two-block development capitalizes on the unique historic architecture of Hartford to produce owner-occupied homes where blight and abandonment once ruled.
The developers of Mortson/Putnam Heights are Mortson/Putnam Heights Ventures, LLC, an innovative partnership of two non-profit and two for-profit developers: Corporation for Independent Living, Broad Park Development Corporation, Greater Hartford Realty and the Milano Corporation. These developers were the first to use the Connecticut Historic Homes Rehabilitation Tax Credit to create homeownership form historic structures in urban areas.
The new Rice Heights neighborhood shows that with a bright vision and a strong commitment, new opportunity can grow in Hartford. Today, Sheldon Oak Central is developing 44 new single-family homes on vacant land formerly occupied by the Rice Heights public housing complex in the southwest section of Hartford. Many of the homes have been purchased by former Rice Heights residents. The remainder will be sold on the open market. There are five different house types on the site. Four of the house types will contain three-bedrooms and will range in size from 1,253 to 1,380 square feet and one house type will include four bedrooms and 1,612 square feet of living space.
Sheldon Oak Central has worked closely with Co-Opportunity to help many first time homebuyers make the transition into homeownership. Co-Opportunity has also brought the Youthbuild program to Rice Heights providing a portion of the construction labor at this development, creating housing while teaching construction skills to youth. Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity is constructing five of the homes which will be sold to families through their program.