This Tuesday, a Madison landlord applied for the allocation of $355,000 to rehabilitate 48 rental units leased to qualified low-to-moderate-income renters. The renovations are set to take place in the Allied Drive neighborhood in the Prairie Crossing housing development.
Project Home, a non-profit landlord company in the Madison area whose mission is to improve the quality and affordability of housing for low-to-moderate income residents in Dane and Green County, Wis., owns and maintains the Prairie Crossing units.
Currently, the units offer a multitude of programs for the tenants, including an office computer that they make available for their residents who are applying for jobs, numerous service projects, a food pantry, community garden plots and a playground in the park between their buildings. However, the organization plans to put about $1.4 million into renovations.
“The access to high-quality affordable housing across the city is very much in demand, and it’s a concern for anyone who is paying attention to the livability in Madison. In the case of Project Home, they have done a really nice job of being a great and supportive landlord while maintaining a safe and healthy living environment,” said Ald. Maurice Cheeks, District 10. “Particularly for this unit, you have stability in these apartments, and people really cherish living here.”
The project will be funded by the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a federal program that funds community development programs such as affordable housing, anti-poverty programs and infrastructure development.
In the past, these grants have been used in Madison to improve the quality of existing owner-occupied housing stock to support community stability and neighborhood revitalization efforts, expand homeownership opportunities and facilitate new job creation in the private sector.
From 2005-’09, the CDBG has allowed the city to create 889 affordable rental housing units and 217 new units for businesses, as well as rehabilitate 1,085 already occupied housing units.
