(Washington, DC) Mayor Adrian M. Fenty joined District leaders on Tuesday to announce the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the District a $20 million HOPE VI grant to build 336 units of mixed-income housing at the site of the former Sheridan Terrace housing complex in Ward 8.
“These grants have been a great tool in helping turn around some of our most challenged communities,” Fenty said. “This most recent grant is truly significant in that it will not only provide hundreds of much needed new housing in Ward 8, but it will play a significant role in helping us move forward with our nearby Barry Farm/Park Chester/Wade Road New Community.”
The HUD funds will leverage other local and federal funds to create about $107 million to finance the project. The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is leading the project with its development partner, the William C. Smith Cos. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is providing $400,000 for pre-development of the project and coordinating the New Communities work.
The former 183-unit Sheridan Terrace public housing complex was demolished in 1997. It was badly deteriorated because bad drainage caused soil erosion prompting recurring flooding that made basement-level apartments uninhabitable. It will be replaced with 336 units of mixed-income housing, including 70 stacked townhouse units, 110 family townhouses, 56 manor homes and a 100-unit family and senior apartment.
Like all HOPE VI projects – this is the District’s seventh – the low-income, affordable and market-rate units will be inter-mixed and indistinguishable from one another. The DCHA will also give former Sheridan Terrace residents preference in moving back into rental housing at the site and buying the new units.
The project will also be one of the first new sites to relocate some current residents of Barry Farm as a part of the New Communities Initiative. The District is in the midst of a multi-year project to transform Barry Farm into a mixed-income community with roughly 1,100 units of new housing, which will include replacement units for the more than 400 families that currently live in the community, as well as workforce and market-rate housing. The new development will also include a new school, a new community center and abundant open space.
