The Office of Community Housing

The Office of Community Housing is a city-run division that works to coordinate individual citizens looking to contribute their own funds towards multiunit real estate developments for the sake of satisfying their own need for housing.

Interested parties will work with a small team from the office, who gather requirements, develop the project costs, and coordinate bids from qualified architects, engineers, and construction companies.

Office Goals

The primary goal for the Office of Community Housing is to ensure affordable and responsible housing for our residents. We do this by distributing the project cost to all future residents. Because these aren’t traditional development projects, with marketing costs and developer profits involved, unit costs stay well below commercial development prices.

Project Scale

The office will handle development projects with a minimum of three units. Our largest projects to date include the 17-story Cheshire Condominiums and the 23-story Walker Tower.

Unit Pricing

Future residents’ units are priced according to comparable units in existing residential buildings. This factors in unit sizes, amenities, cardinal direction, views, what level the unit is on, and other factors. Each unit is then priced to represent a proportion of total project cost with these factors in mind. The project coordinators then help to match potential future tenants to specific units.

Reselling Units

Resell prices on units are restricted. For the first five years of the building’s life, all units are priced based on the above Unit Price Section, plus market appreciation. After five years, the tenant begins building ownership in the unit, which, after thirty years, they will be full owners of their unit. If they sell during that time, they’ll receive the market appreciation amount, multiplied by the amount of ownership they have at the time of sale. The remainder of any profit gets inserted into the city’s low-income housing funds program.

Purchasing Units

Oftentimes there are many interested parties when an existing unit goes up for sale, since the prices on Office of Community Housing projects are drastically lower than market rate units. Usually a lottery system is required, since the unit price is fixed.

A Strong History, a Bright Future

Over our 15 year history, the Office of Community Housing has made it possible for thousands of citizens to become home owners. The department will continue to grow and adapt as needed to continue to be a powerful factor in the livability of our city.