Developer addresses ‘low-income housing’ stigma
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The city is on track to rezone a long-vacant former industrial site to allow low-income housing there.
Pivotal Housing Partners is proposing an $80 million dollar development that includes two four-story buildings for workforce and senior housing with more than 200 apartments in total. Pete Schwiegeraht with Pivotal says those qualify for state and federal funding and tax credits as low-income housing.
“What we’re saying to the state is, you give us these tax credits, we’ll build a high-quality product you want, but we’re going to guarantee that that rent is obtainable, so the end user is going to se a $200 to $300 discount on market rent,” he said.
City officials anticipate community concerns about targeting low-income residents, but Schwiegeraht says almost all seniors and workers making as much as $35 an hour qualify.
“When most people think of low-income house, they’re thinking of Section 8. They’re thinking of HUD. They’re thinking of your public housing or housing authority based projects like Section 8 projects, and we don’t have that rent subsidy,” he said. “It’s workforce housing. They call it that for a reason. The whole definition is to house the workforce who might not be at an income level to afford a home.”
Other phases of the development include homes, townhomes and commercial buildings.
With the backing of Mayor Joel Day, New Philadelphia’s planning commission and zoning board approved a zoning change to allow the development.
Day said the city “desperately needs” workforce housing. Other city officials said the project would force other landlords in the city to “up their game.”
City Council will vote on the zoning change in May. It only applies to the nearly 20-acre property at the corner of South Broadway and Mill Avenue that has housed several manufacturers over the past 130 years, including Joy Technologies and Howden-Buffalo.