The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) announced it has issued $36 million in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of S Street Village. The agency also underwrote $34 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity, with $29 million from federal sources and $5 million from D.C.
The project is a partnership with Manna Inc. and Affordable Homes & Communities to redevelop the current site of the New Community Church and three townhomes in Ward 2’s Shaw neighborhood in Northwest.
S Street Village will include 90 new affordable apartments, Manna’s new headquarters and a renovated New Community Church.
“S Street Village represents an amazing opportunity for its sponsor to harvest over five decades of work in the Shaw neighborhood,” said Christopher E. Donald, executive director and CEO of DCHFA. “New Community Church and Manna have been anchors of stability and long-term investors in the people of Shaw. This new redevelopment will align operators, mission and faith in a massively transformative way. It is an extraordinary privilege to be a part of this wonderful moment.”
Manna was awarded the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) rights from the residents of the existing townhomes on the property. S Street Village will consist of an eight-story building with 40 one-bedroom units, 30 two-bedroom units, 18 three-bedroom units and two four-bedroom apartments restricted to residents earning 60% of area median income or less. Property amenities will include a community room, on-site management, 30 underground parking spaces and a green roof.
The new $83 million community will be transit-oriented. It will be located 0.2 miles from the Shaw-Howard University Metro Station and within walking distance of the many amenities available in the Shaw neighborhood.
Through its Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investment and Capital Markets divisions, DCHFA issues tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds to lower developers’ costs of acquiring, constructing and rehabilitating rental housing. The agency offers private for-profit and nonprofit developers low-cost predevelopment, construction and permanent financing that supports the new construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing in the District.