A GROUP OF NONPROFITS known as the Taunton Avenue Collaborative recently requested
that members of the General Assembly set aside $28 million in next fiscal year’s state budget
for an affordable housing development on Taunton Avenue in East Providence.
Leaders from the group, from left, ONE Neighborhood Builders Executive Director Jennifer Hawkins,
Foster Forward Executive Director Lisa Guillette, Crossroads Rhode Island
CEO Karen Santilli and Family Service of Rhode Island Chief Operating
Officer Ben Weiner recently toured the proposed development site at 350 Taunton Ave.
Stephen Ide photo / ONE NEIGHBORHOOD BUILDERS
By Marc Laroque
Providence Business News
EAST PROVIDENCE – A group of four nonprofits called the Taunton Avenue Collaborative recently made requests to members of the General Assembly to set aside $28 million in the state budget to help with the development of affordable housing units on Taunton Avenue in East Providence.
Leaders from the group, which includes the ONE Neighborhood Builders, Crossroads Rhode Island, Foster Forward and Family Service of Rhode Island, requested the funding from the state lawmakers to accelerate the construction of 160 units of affordable housing and commercial space at 330 Taunton Ave., 350 Taunton Ave. and 354 Taunton Ave.
The collaborative said earlier this year that it had secured $7.1 million to establish the housing development, but that additional funding would be needed to finish the project, with a goal of opening the new apartments by the summer of 2025.
The $28 million funding request for the fiscal 2024 budget comes after ONE Neighborhood Builders announced in April that it purchased the 2.95 acres of land that make up the Taunton Avenue properties, including a dormant, four-story, 63,000-square-foot apartment building once known as Edmund Place, which was constructed in 1975.
The proposed redevelopment is intended to provide housing to “extremely low-income households,” according to ONE Neighborhood Builders, along with youths aging out of foster care and some low- to moderate-income households. The development would also include 6,000 square feet of commercial space, to be used in part for a new “early learning center,” the nonprofit said, along with 1,500 square feet of community amenity space and playground areas.
The principals of the collaborative, including ONE Neighborhood Builders President Jennifer Hawkins, Crossroads CEO Karen Santilli, Foster Forward Executive Director Lisa Guillette and Family Service of Rhode Island CEO Margaret Holland McDuff, released a statement describing the proposal as “a prime example of how we can build housing at meaningful scale” while redeveloping blighted properties in Rhode Island.
“For too long, Rhode Island has been dead last in the nation for new home starts,” according to a joint statement from the nonprofit leaders. “With homelessness rising and families squeezed out of the housing market, it is now more important than ever that we work together: corralling our shared commitment to housing justice and lending our unique skills to this transformative housing development.”
