Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is extending its reach in the Chicago market by acquiring five more affordable properties with 247 rental apartments from the Chicago Community Development Corporation (CCDC) in Chicago’s fast-appreciating Uptown and Bridgeport neighborhoods.
In Uptown, POAH acquired four properties that provide 192 apartments in 11 buildings for individuals and families. Voice of the People in Uptown, a long-standing community organization and neighborhood anchor that initially developed the properties, will continue to be a co-owner with POAH in the properties. As part of that partnership, Voice will also provide resident and community engagement services.
In Bridgeport, POAH purchased the 55-apartment Archer Avenue Senior Residences. Both the Bridgeport and Uptown acquisitions will ensure that these properties remain affordable long into the future despite significant gentrification pressures in both neighborhoods.
The properties include a mix of rent-subsidy-supported apartments (such as Section 8) and more traditional affordable apartments. The properties include fitness areas, computer labs, site security and laundry facilities.
“We are excited that POAH is preserving long-term affordability and bringing decades of experience to the Uptown community,” said 46th Ward Alderman James Cappleman whose ward includes Uptown. “We are excited to have an organization that demonstrates the benefits to residents of improving both housing and tenant services.”
The acquisition expands POAH’s footprint in and around the Chicago area to more than 2,000 affordable apartments the nonprofit has developed or acquired and now manages since 2008. It also comes only one year after POAH expanded to Harvey, Elgin and Chicago’s Austin, Roseland, South Chicago and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods. POAH now owns and manages properties in 10 Chicago neighborhoods and two suburbs.
The buildings purchased in Uptown and Bridgeport are well-preserved. However, over the next several years, POAH and Voice plan to make improvements to the properties, transactions that will cement the POAH-Voice partnership well into the future.
“Quality property management, tenant services and long-term affordability are what we as an organization are about,” said Maurice Hamp, board president at Voice. “In this partnership, POAH helps make it possible by leveraging its experience in financing and property management—it’s a new model of collaboration that needs to happen more broadly in our city.”
POAH and Voice will work together to provide services and programming for residents focused on access to quality food, healthy living, financial stability and community engagement. These programs will be modeled after the services POAH provides at its other properties, including the Woodlawn Resource Center in Chicago.
“We believe both Uptown and Bridgeport will be great places to work and the process of integrating ourselves into these communities is already under way,” said Bill Eager, POAH’s senior vice president in the Midwest.
