By Edward Fitzpatrick
The Boston Globe / Dec. 16, 2021
PROVIDENCE — The stock version of the American Dream involves a big house with a white picket fence, a humongous yard, two kids and a dog.
But for years, Jhanev Allen Butler harbored a different dream, scouring the country for a home that checked three boxes: affordability, sustainability, and community.
Now, her dream has come true in Olneyville.
On Wednesday, Allen Butler stood on her balcony in the Sheridan Small Homes development, a cluster of five 750-square-foot homes that ONE Neighborhood Builders has erected on Sheridan Street, between Manton Avenue and the Woonasquatucket River Greenway bike path.
Jhanev Allen Butler lives in one of the new small homes that have been built in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood as part of a pilot project meant to show the long-term viability of “net-zero energy” affordable housing.
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
The homes are topped by solar panels and were built in a South-facing arc to maximize solar production. Airtight and well insulated, the structures meet the “net-zero energy” standard, meaning they produce as much energy as they consume.
The two-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom homes are being occupied by income-qualified buyers, with starting price of about $140,000. For example, two of the homes are reserved for families earning 80 percent of the area median income, meaning $52,400 for a family of two and $65,500 for a family of four. And they’re deed restricted, meaning they must be sold to other income-qualified buyers.
Two of the five Sheridan Small Homes in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood are now occupied, and closings are expected on two others by the end of December.
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
