News
Athens City Council approves land transfer for an affordable housing development
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Some rare low-income housing planned for inside the city of Athens took a significant step closer to becoming a reality this week with a vote by the City Council to transfer property to the developer.
The property is about a half-acre of surplus city-owned land at the end of Hudson Street where it dead-ends.
The developer, Community Building Partners, plans to build eight homes on this land and an adjoining parcel it is buying from the Red Cross.
The homes will then be sold to the city, which in turn will sell the homes to low-income buyers for no more than $180,000.
The city will pay for the homes with a $2 million grant it received from Welcome Home Ohio, a state program that helps fund low-income housing development.
To qualify for the homes, buyers’ household income must be at or below 80 percent of the area median income as reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The income threshold will vary depending on the size of the household.
To ensure the homes remain affordable, at least for a while, they can only be resold to low-income buyers for the next 20 years. Also, the initial buyers must own the homes for at least five years before they can sell.
The homes will be built in an Ohio factory and then lifted onto concrete foundations at the Hudson site. They could be available for sale sometime this fall.
The city plans to use money from the sale of the homes to build more low-income housing, including senior housing.