City celebrates housing revitalization01:00 AM EDT on Friday, October 27, 2006 |
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By Karen A. Davis PROVIDENCE — There was a time, not long ago, when the wooded area off Aleppo Street was known as party central for prostitutes and drug users. Its vacant lots were littered with clothing, tires, sofas, garbage and other throw-away items common to an area that had become a throw-away part of Olneyville. That image of Aleppo Street is a thing of the past, thanks to an affordable housing project led by Olneyville Housing Corporation, which has begun to change the neighborhood. The agency turned the formerly abandoned area near the Woonasquatucket River into a site for 31 apartments in 12 buildings. City and state officials will celebrate the $6.8-million project — dubbed Riverside Gateway — at a ribbon-cutting ceremony today at 9:30 a.m. near Aleppo and Pelham streets. Riverside Gateway is part of a three-phase development that will ultimately include 20 affordable condominiums, 12 units of housing for artists and the renovation of three worker cottages that date to the 1860s, according to Frank Shea, executive director of Olneyville Housing. In addition, the Woonasquatucket Watershed Council is leading a city effort to transform the abandoned area along the river into a 7-acre park with a bike path and walking trail as part of the Riverside Mills restoration project. Late last month, the Baltimore-based developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse spearheaded a community service day that included 1,000 plantings, developing a launch site for canoes, a river cleanup and the painting of bike racks and bike path markers. City officials expect to complete development of the park next spring. Planning for affordable housing in the Aleppo and Pelham street area began in 2002, Shea said. Officials knew that the area between Manton Avenue and the river would need to be improved in order to build on other neighborhood revitalization efforts. “Clearly, this type of development helps boost Olneyville in particular and Providence in general,” Mayor David N. Cicilline said in a statement. “In fact, this part of Olneyville has undergone the most dramatic transformation of any neighborhood in the city in the last four years.” Cicilline said the apartments and condominiums will “allow working families to enjoy the benefits of safe, decent housing in a neighborhood of their choice.” City officials admit that crime was such a problem near Aleppo Street that few residents considered living in the area. To address that problem, Olneyville Housing worked with the Police Department and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s community safety initiative to identify the source of the crime problem and reduce it. Shea said police and the attorney general’s nuisance task force worked with city officials to hold negligent property owners accountable for their deteriorating properties. At today’s ceremony, Rep. Patrick Kennedy is expected to present LISC officials with $500,000 to enhance safety, Shea said. “New houses alone won’t turn a neighborhood around,” Shea noted. “If a neighborhood is perceived as unsafe, few people will want to live there. But the fact that we have built new houses and that the occupants have a proprietary feeling about their community is making a difference.” Residents began moving into the new houses on Pelham and Aleppo streets two weeks ago. Of the 31 apartments, 19 are three-bedroom units, seven have two bedrooms, two have four bedrooms and three are one-bedroom. The units are energy efficient and designed in a townhouse style that includes basements. Shea said rents range from $420 per month for the one-bedroom units to $750 per month for the four-bedroom units; those eligible to live there include families earning between $20,000 and $40,000, he said. The project was paid for by low-income housing tax credits bought by LISC’s national equity fund and money from Rhode Island Housing, the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission and the city. Shea said his agency remains committed to creating more home ownership units in the area. Contractors are working on the Riverside Townhomes project, which will create 20 affordable condominiums several blocks away, also off Manton Avenue. That project is expected to be completed next summer, Shea said. Riverside Mills will create the 19 units of housing for artists and seven affordable housing units in the soon-to-be rehabbed mill building and in worker cottages on Pelham and Hillard streets. That project will also create office space for nonprofit agencies and will be completed in 2008. Shea said the project was more than three years in the making, as Olneyville Housing worked with the city and environmental officials to acquire and clean up properties that would provide a visible link to the park. The project is designed to complement the riverside park that has been in the works for more than a decade. Since 1994, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council has worked with the city and state and federal environmental agencies to clean up the contaminated former Riverside Mill complex site and turn it into a park with a community center. The planned River Greenway running along Aleppo Street will include a bike path that will connect Olneyville to downtown Providence, Johnston and communities beyond. Shea said city officials have vowed to continue Aleppo Street, which now ends at Pelham. Police and neighborhood advocates have convinced city officials that the street should run along the side of the park and serve as a better link to the neighborhood.The Riverside project is a continuation of the work that Olneyville Housing began in 2002, when it converted vacant and abandoned lots into sites for 32 units of affordable rental housing.
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This house at the corner of Hillard and Pelham streets was built from the ground up to match the older homes next to it. The Providence Journal / Kris Craig |
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Above are a few of the 12 multifamily housing complexes that were built along Aleppo Street. Olneyville Housing’s project aims to revitalize a row of houses across the street from the old Riverside Mills manufacturing building. The Providence Journal / Kris Craig |