Our History

Neighborhood residents, Nickerson House Community Center, and Providence Councilwoman Josephine DiRuzzo come together to form Olneyville Housing Corporation (OHC) to address the foreclosed and abandoned properties in the neighborhood and the lack of affordable housing.

Olneyville Housing Corporation builds affordable housing for 15 neighborhood families through the rehabilitation of single-family and two-family homes.

Olneyville Housing Corporation, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Providence, and Rhode Island Organizing Project launch the Olneyville Collaborative to respond jointly to community development needs in the neighborhood.

Olneyville Redux:

Thirty-two newly renovated apartments are completed, providing Olneyville families with affordable, stable apartments on Bowdoin, Putnam, Appleton, Julian, and Kossuth Streets.

Seven new families become homeowners through OHC-built or rehabilitated homes. OHC institutes its community land trust model to ensure that homes remain affordable in perpetuity. YouthBuild Providence trainees build three new homes as part of this effort.

Olneyville Collaborative, now with 13 members, completes the Olneyville Action Plan with support from Rhode Island Housing. The plan identifies the opportunity to capitalize on Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council’s work to rediscover the river and plans for Riverside Park and the Fred Lippitt Woonasquatucket River Bike Path.

OHC’s Riverside Gateway and Riverside Townhomes are completed, bringing 51 families into new homes on the streets across from Riverside Park.

Olneyville Housing Corporation receives a MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award in recognition of its innovative partnerships with the Providence Police Department, which have resulted in dramatic reductions in crime in the Riverside Park area.

OHC is selected as the first Rhode Island recipient of Bank of America’s premier philanthropic initiative, the Neighborhood Excellence Award.

With seed funding from the United Way of Rhode Island, OHC begins its stewardship program to maintain open spaces in the neighborhood and to provide seasonal employment for at-risk young people from the neighborhood.

Rhode Island Housing designates Olneyville as one of the first four KeepSpace Communities in Rhode Island in recognition of the comprehensive nature of Olneyville Housing Cooperation’s development strategy.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Rhode Island designates Olneyville Housing Corporation to pilot the Sustainable Communities initiative. OHC produces the Olneyville Community Contract, a comprehensive plan for the neighborhood that is the result of an intensive community engagement process.

OHC completes the renovation of the former Polish National Home at 66 Chaffee Street, which had originally opened in 1926 with an auditorium, dining hall, and bowling alleys.

The “Dom Polski,” as National Homes were called, served to integrate new immigrants into American society, a role that the Olneyville Polish Home maintained until 2002, when the building was vacated. OHC re-imagined the vacant building into its headquarters, with rental space for YouthBuild RI.

Citizens Bank recognizes Olneyville Housing Corporation as a Champion in Action.

OHC and the Providence Housing Authority are awarded one of the first 14 Choice Neighborhood Initiative planning grants to support the revitalization of Manton Heights and to connect this development physically and socially with the rest of the neighborhood.

The partnership between Olneyville Housing Corporation and the Providence Police Department is recognized with the first L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award from the U.S. Department of Justice.

OHC redevelops and leases 15 affordable apartments, all of which were  formerly foreclosed, blighted properties throughout the Olneyville neighborhood.

OHC develops its stewardship program into a social enterprise, ONE Works, and secures contract landscaping work in Olneyville and Greater Providence.

OHC is honored as the first Rhode Island recipient of TD Bank’s premier philanthropic initiative, the Housing for Everyone Award.

Olneyville Housing Corporation develops the first of three energy-efficient “Providence Green Homes” constructed by Building Futures. This Audrey Street Homeownership Initiative focuses on the transformation of Audrey Street from a foreclosure-ravaged street into a stabilized community of moderate-income, single-family homeowners.

Building on its work conducting neighborhood health assessments, OHC receives a competitive Rhode Island Department of Health Center for Health Equity and Wellness grant to address the social and environmental determinants of health.

Olneyville Housing Corporation completes the Olney Village project, developing mostly foreclosed and abandoned properties into 40 family homes and two spaces for cherished community organizations:
The Olneyville Food Center and the Manton Avenue Project.

OHC’s place-based community development strategy receives further Federal recognition when it is awarded the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to address crime hotspots in the neighborhood.

Olneyville Housing Corporation receives a 4-year Health Equity Zone grant from the Rhode Island Department of Health to address health disparities in Olneyville, including lack of access to healthy food, low levels of physical activity, and high rates of chronic disease.

OHC and the Providence Housing Authority complete the Choice Neighborhood “Build Olneyville Plan,” a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization road map.

OHC acquires Imperial Knife, a historic former mill and a critical link between Manton Heights and Riverside Park, to be redeveloped into affordable housing.

Olneyville Housing Corporation and Community Works Rhode Island come together to form ONE Neighborhood Builders (ONE|NB).

ONE Neighborhood Builders partners with Trinity Financial to serve as the developer for Imperial Knife, which is renamed 60 King Street, a reference to the 60 apartments to be developed at this historic property.

Eight formerly foreclosed buildings are transformed into the Amherst Gardens development: 36 families now call Amherst Gardens home.

With the support of the Rhode Island Foundation, ONE|NB launches Protecting Providence Properties (P3). Six units of naturally occurring affordable housing (known as NOAH) are purchased in Providence and leased to moderate-income families.

ONE Neighborhood Builders opens the Elmwood Financial Center as a neighborhood hub for financial coaching and homebuyer education. (closed 2020)

The Olneyville Health Equity Zone becomes the Central Providence Health Equity Zone, expanding its service area to include the Federal Hill, Hartford, and Valley neighborhoods.

ONE|NB and Federal Hill House receive funding through the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services to launch a pilot effort called the Central Providence Healthy Aging Network, designed to help older residents age in their community.

The Rhode Island Department of Education awards ONE|NB the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, to support after-school and school vacation programs for students at the William D’Abate Elementary School.

ONE|NB breaks ground for its Manton Avenue Live/Work Townhomes, the nonprofit’s first two-family homes that also include commercial/maker space so that an owner can operate a business in that space. These four new townhomes near Olneyville’s vibrant commercial corridor are intended for buyers earning between 80% and 120% of the average median income. (Read about first owner)

ONE|NB begins construction on its Sheridan Small Homes project, to construct 5 new zero-energy, small homes in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood. The solar panels on these homes will produce as much, or more, energy as the occupants are projected to consume. (Case study)

ONE|NB breaks ground on its largest development to date, King Street Commons, with an investment of $17.5 million. On 2.5 acres, these 30 new affordable rental apartments and 32 rehabilitated affordable apartments are located along a once-blighted street. One of the buildings is now poised to host an on-site child care center on the ground floor (which opens in fall 2021).

Pandemic Response: The Central Providence Health Equity Zone expands to encompass the 02908 and 02909 ZIP codes. The Community Health Worker cohort, begun and supported by ONE|NB, also expands in Central Providence from 5 Community Health Workers in March of 2020 to 14 in July of 2020.

Pandemic Response: Recognizing the urgent need for families to access the internet for school and work, ONE|NB creates a wireless mesh network during the pandemic to provide free internet access to a portion of the Olneyville neighborhood. ONE|NB installs 12 wireless routers throughout the neighborhood, onto the rooftops of buildings that ONE|NB owns, to allow coverage across a wide area, with the initial potential to reach 1,000 households. ONE|NB begins exploring ways to expand the network.

ONE|NB is selected as one of 14 projects across the country for Blue Meridian Partners’ Place Matters Portfolio to convene Central Providence Opportunities (CPO). This two-year, $8-million, place-based effort is intended to improve economic mobility for residents in the nine neighborhoods in the 02908 and 02909 ZIP codes: Elmhurst, Federal Hill, Hartford, Manton, Mount Pleasant, Olneyville, Silver Lake, Smith Hill, and Valley. Economic mobility is the likelihood that children achieve a higher standard of living than the household in which they were born. ONE|NB is the only entity in New England selected for this Place Matters work.

In its first project outside of Providence, ONE|NB purchases Sutton Place in East Providence, with assistance from RIHousing. The buildings at 54 and 60 Sutton Avenue contain 36 apartments that will remain affordable. The renovation makes East Providence the seventh of Rhode Island’s 39 communities to meet the State goal of 10 percent low- and moderate-income housing. ONE|NB also becomes the developer for 16 affordable housing units in Riverside Square, in East Providence, on a vacant, former brownfield location.

ONE|NB is awarded a WiFi At Work Award by WifiForward, a coalition of companies, organizations and public sector institutions working to keep communities connected over the internet. ONE|NB was specifically recognized for ONE|NB Connects, its free community WiFi project launched in 2020 amid the pandemic.

Innovation Studio and ONE|NB launch Biz Bodega, at 222 Manton Ave. Biz Bodega is a resource center and public space, a one-stop shop with access to resources and services for entrepreneurs in a community-centered space. Biz Bodega aims to support new and aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small business owners throughout Central Providence.

In March, ONE|NB announces two affordable housing developments—our rehabilitation of formerly dilapidated dwellings on Delaine Street and our first modular development, on Bowdoin Street. They bring a total of 17 new affordable apartments to Olneyville. The Bowdoin Street apartments were built off-site, lowered into place in February/March, with completion by May 2022.

In March, ONE|NB and Central Providence Opportunities: A Health Equity Zone (CPO-HEZ) released the Central Providence Roadmap, outlining a 10-year strategy for comprehensive community improvement. This collaborative effort was shaped by input from over 60 organizations, community leaders, and residents of Central Providence. The roadmap targets enhanced housing, early education, workforce development, and the creation of quality jobs. The initiative was framed as a commitment to guarantee every resident has access to essential resources. It focuses on addressing systemic inequities, positioning it as a pivotal tool for community transformation in Providence.

In April, ONE|NB broke ground for the Residences at Riverside Square in East Providence, signaling a significant step forward in affordable housing. This new venture will offer 16 modern apartments, with a special focus on youths transitioning out of foster care through a partnership with Foster Forward. Situated on what was once the vacant VAMCO property, these apartments will serve individuals within 30% to 80% of the Area Median Income bracket. The development is slated for completion in 2024.

Culminating with a vote in June, ONE|NB and the Nine Neighborhood Fund, championed one of Rhode Island’s groundbreaking participatory budgeting initiatives. With active participation from 1,200 Central Providence residents, $1 million was allocated for community projects. This involved crucial developments such as new composting toilets, enhanced park greenery, lead-free water solutions, a high schooler’s peer mental health program, and bus stop upgrades. This democratic process showcased the community’s commitment to bettering health and quality of life in the 02908 and 02909 zip codes.