Envy Apartment

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An affordable housing project in Albuquerque’s Southeast Heights that has been in the works since 2015 officially opened Thursday . Described as a high- design urban infill site , the 89- unit Casa Feliz apartment complex is a $17. 2 million redevelopment project that received funding from four sources. The bulk came from $12.5 million in low- income housing tax credits from the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority . City support for the project, which is located in the International District, includes $2.8 million from the Affordable Housing Fund . The New Mexico Housing Trust Fund kicked in $1.5 million and $400,000 came through the Ventana Fund, a nonprofit organization administered by MFA. The development, which is located at 443 Española Street SE, consists of efficiency, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Casa Feliz is reserved for families and individuals with incomes at 30 to 60 percent of the area median household income of $48,900. Twenty per...

Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas . He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery . Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate . The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a city housing department , for a union, for a law clinic, and on a campaign that stopped a PVC factory from being built in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” For the last decade, he has served as executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (better known as t.e.j.a.s.). Part of his work is leading tours past the heaping piles of scrap metal along Houston’s Buffalo Ba...

A nonprofit in Missoula is set to purchase 160 units of apartments next to the Clark Fork River in Missoula in order to preserve them as affordable housing . Homeword is currently in the process of buying the Creekside Apartments on East Broadway, which are currently owned by an out-of-state company. The apartments are currently available to people earning $27,720 or less annually, which is 60 percent or less of the area median income of $46,200 per person. However, the affordable restriction was set to expire in 2026, at which point the property would most likely have been converted into market rate rentals due to its desirable location. This would have made them "prime" for rent increases that would likely have caused the majority of residents to have to seek a place to live at lower rates elsewhere in an already competitive rental market , according to Homeword executive director Andrea Davis . “We know that rentals are in high demand here and there’s a significant ne...

Margaret Watson is the new CEO for Madison- based Steve Brown Apartments . Steve Brown, who founded the company in 1980, plans to step away from day-to- day management of the business but will remain active as chairman of the board. Brown’s wife, Laurel, who owns the design and architectural firm Brownhouse , 220 W. Gorham St., will continue to run her business while also working with her husband on a new Madison-area foundation. Details about the foundation’s mission and scope will be released in late spring or early summer, Steve Brown said. Brown, a graduate of Michigan State University and the UW- Madison Law School , has supported or served on many housing industry- related nonprofit boards and advisory committees, among other community involvement. Watson has been with the company for more than 20 years, Brown said. “She understands the housing market better than anyone I know and helped us grow SBA into one of the largest and most successful property manageme...

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...

Ruth Chase with two of her paintings at the opening of "West of Lincoln" Jennifer Swann Eddie Hadvina points to the painting of himself as an 11-year-old Boy Scout. In it, he’s wearing an olive green cap and a red kerchief with his khaki uniform, a skateboard in one hand and a trophy in the other. On his left shoulder is a patch representing Venice ’s Troop 34, which he joined at his mother's insistence. “That’s where all the trouble started,” says Hadvina, now 56 and sporting a gray goatee. “That’s where I met all my Venice Hoodlum friends ,” he says, referring to a street gang that was active in the neighborhood in the 1970s. Hadvina's parents, both Hungarian immigrants, visited Venice on their honeymoon in 1960 — Hadvina says he was conceived during that trip — and decided to move there two years later. Hadvina discovered skateboarding when the sport was still brand-new and being pioneered in the neighborhood by people like Stacy Peralta, one of his peers. But H...

DETROIT -  Colony Arms Apartments in Detroit was once the most problematic building in the city. Now, it's one of the nicest affordable housing developments  in Detroit. On Friday, Jan. 27, the developers and investors in Colony and Fisher Arms Apartments , 9303 E. Jefferson Ave., invited community leaders to the the 161-unit building for a renaming ceremony. After four years of renovation, Colony Arms is now River Crest Apartments . Developers Detroit nonprofit Cinnaire and Baltimore- based Chesapeake Community Advisors  took on the building to renovate it and make it a safe, secure home for residents, said Mark McDaniel, Cinnaire president and chief executive officer . The nearly century-old brick building features a mail room, wash room, new appliances, paint, carpets, central air conditioning , security cameras and secure parking. River Crest Apartments has lobbies with paneled walls, tile floors and new gas fireplaces. "It is a completely different place," said...