New affordable housing project underway

Outreach Development Corporation, IOCP’s housing development arm, has purchased an apartment building in Wayzata and will create 6 units of affordable housing. The project will address the dramatic need for working families’ starter housing in the city.

Boulevard Apartments, located at 645 Wayzata Blvd., has been vacant for more than a year and was a former chemical dependency treatment center for young adult males. On a transit route, the building is within walking distance to a middle school, shopping center, and medical clinic, and is close to IOCP services.

The building will be entirely rehabbed, both inside and out. There will be 6 units, 5 two-bedrooms and 1 one-bedroom. Four of the units will have rents affordable to a 4-person family with one full-time working parent earning up to $20.17/hour. Two of the units will have rents targeted to retail sales staff, child care workers, or others with a 4-person family who earn up to $12.09/hour as full-time workers. Community volunteers will be involved in preparing the units for tenants.

The total cost of the project is $900,000. Funders include Hennepin County, federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, Presbyterian Homes, IOCP, and Black River Asset Management Group, a Cargill subsidiary.

Anticipated completion of the project is August 2010.

For more information, contact Kim Vohs.