Bank gives boost for low-income housing projects
The Community Housing Network is planning to replace its low-income apartment building on Parsons Avenue with a new $12 million complex two blocks away. Donations from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati are helping this and other low-income projects locally.
The new project, called Parsons Place, would include 62 one-bedroom apartments in a three-story building at E. Barthman Avenue behind the John Maloney Health Center.
Residents in the 25 apartments in Community Housing’s existing Parsons Avenue building at 1949 Parsons Ave. would be relocated if the new project moves forward. No decision has been made on the future of the current building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, said Community Housing’s Development Director Ryan Cassell.
Parsons Place received a $1 million donation from the Federal Home Loan Bank, but must receive state tax credits before proceeding, Cassell said.
Three other Community Housing projects also received donations from the bank, including:
Briggsdale Apartments, an $8.3 million addition to the Briggdale housing development at 1670 Harrisburg Pike. Plans call for 40 more units to join the 35 already on the site. Cassell said construction should begin in the spring or summer on the addition.
Laurel Green, a $7.1 million apartment building at 6079 Northgate Rd., near E. DublinGranville Road and I-71, to house low-income residents with mental disabilities. Construction is also scheduled to begin in late spring or early summer.
The Federal Home Loan Bank also donated $1 million to Faith Mission for its $4.2 million shelter on Grant Avenue Downtown that will house 176 beds and replace the current Faith Mission on N. 6th Street.
Faith Mission expects to move women into the new shelter in February, followed by men a month or so later, said Jennifer Hamilton, communications director with Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio, which operates the shelter.
The grants were awarded to several central Ohio banks.
One of them, Huntington Bancshares, received a total of $2.8 million from the bank to use toward 11 projects throughout Ohio, including the four central Ohio projects.
Another central Ohio bank, Newark-based Park National Bank was awarded nearly $1.3 million that it will use to help finance 128 units of affordable housing for low- to moderate-income residents in six communities in central and southern Ohio.
The money from will be spent on projects in Cincinnati, Dayton, Upper Arlington, Piketon and Zanesville.
About half of the money will help construct 97 multifamily rental units in Piketon for lowand very-low-income tenants, 21 of whom have special needs. The total project costs $9.8 million.