ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A new affordable housing development in Allentown is set to provide stability and new opportunities for generations of residents.
Officials at all levels on Thursday joined residents at Bridgeview Estates for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the latest collaboration between Allentown Housing Authority and Pennrose Properties.
Thursday’s celebration was “the greatest housewarming that any of us have been invited to."State Rep. Peter Schweyer
State Rep. Peter Schweyer said the event was a “really cool” day for lawmakers, but one that belonged to residents of the new development at Lehigh Street and Martin Luther King Drive.
“You’re going to be celebrating your first Christmas, your first New Year’s in your new home with your families,” Schweyer said to residents in Bridgeview’s community room.
He told them they will “have such a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to grow roots."
Thursday’s celebration was “the greatest housewarming that any of us have been invited to,” Schweyer said.
During the first phase of development at Bridgeview Estates, crews replaced 1970s public housing with 50 multi-bedroom apartments.
Officials hope to add dozens more apartments in a second phase of construction. The site previously had nine buildings with 76 units.
Units are income-restricted for residents and families earning less than 60% of the area median income, or about $59,000 per year for a four-person household, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The housing authority said it will provide 25 project-based vouchers. Residents with those vouchers pay no more than 30% of their income.
'A different era of housing'
The first phase of the project was projected to cost about $27 million.
Crews faced many pandemic-related issues and delays throughout the building process, which drove that price up, according to Jacob Fisher of Pennrose Properties.
The development’s first phase was funded through a variety of sources, including the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Allentown Housing Authority and some of the city’s federal funding.
“The city is invested in permitting reform, in fixing our zoning code to make it easier to build, and in advocating for federal- and state-level investment into housing."Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
Mayor Matt Tuerk said the city worked with the housing authority “to eliminate a different era of housing to build modern units.”
Officials are working to streamline the city’s zoning and building-permitting processes to encourage more developers to build housing, Tuerk said.
“The city is invested in permitting reform, in fixing our zoning code to make it easier to build and in advocating for federal- and state-level investment into housing,” he said.
The mayor said he hopes the city can overhaul its zoning code by the middle of 2025, a move that would “fundamentally change the way we build in Allentown.”
Allentown Housing Authority Executive Director Julio Guridy paid tribute to Pennrose Properties and the two organizations’ long-term relationship that’s led to more than 800 housing units in the city, including West Turner Residences and Overlook Park.
He also credited Tuerk and his administration, saying he’s “really happy with the [housing authority's] great relationship with the city."
