New Lease on Life: Redeveloped Project Provides Needed Affordable Housing in Miami
By Christine SerlinFor Miami-based Carrfour Supportive Housing, a leading nonprofit developer in Florida, its main mission has been to provide housing and services for formerly homeless individuals. But the developer has seen how tough it is for these households to move into other housing after they are back on their feet.Over the past couple of years, the nonprofit has started to develop traditional affordable housing to provide more options for these individuals moving up from supportive housing.Its latest project, the newly redeveloped Hampton Village Apartments in Miami’s historic Brownsville neighborhood, is providing 100 units of affordable housing for households earning 50 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.Hampton Village, which had its grand opening at the end of June, is home to 13 households who have moved up from Carrfour’s supportive housing developments.One of Hampton Village’s new residents is a gentleman who had lived in Carrfour supportive housing for almost eight years, says Stephanie Berman, the nonprofit’s president and CEO. The man started as homeless, got a job, and went back to school, but he couldn’t save enough money to move into decent affordable housing.“This gave him the opportunity to finally do that,” she says.Hampton Village Apartments is not only providing a new lease on life for residents, but it also has undergone a complete transformation. Carrfour partnered with Miami-based Landmark Development to redevelop the abandoned and blighted 1950s apartment building.After the development team acquired the project, it relocated squatters to decent affordable housing and knocked down the buildings to start from scratch.The newly constructed buildings feature one-, two-, and three-bedroom units as well as a computer lab, a library, a community gathering space, and a playground.“Rather than being an eyesore to the neighborhood, Hampton Village is now a beautiful apartment building that residents can feel proud of,” Berman says.The $21 million redevelopment was made possible primarily through a combination of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), bonds, and Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds. SunTrust Community Capital provided the LIHTC equity, and Citi Community Capital provided a construction loan and a first mortgage.The federal NSP program was created to revitalize neighborhoods by renovating properties that were foreclosed upon or abandoned during the recession. Hampton Village was Carrfour’s third project with NSP funding. The nonprofit was part of the Miami-Dade County NSP consortium that was granted $89 million in funding through the program.“When you see the before pictures, it says it all,” says Berman. “Of all our NSP projects, it’s the one where the change in the neighborhood was most evident. This one was particularly impactful.”The development is adjacent to the historic Hampton House Motel, which also is undergoing a renovation to bring it back to its former glory. Prominent African-Americans would gather there in the final days of segregation, and the famous jazz club hosted such greats as Martin Luther King Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., Sam Cooke, and Nat King Cole.>Download PDF
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