Last November, we celebrated a major milestone: putting the finishing touches on the final home in our 26-home New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Homeownership Project.
Now, we have one more reason to celebrate.
As of September of this year, every home in the project has been sold, with the final home, 121 Shetland Street, currently under agreement.
That means 26 homes across East Liberty, Larimer, and Garfield are now in the hands of homeowners, bringing a more than $8 million, five-year project to a close.
Across the 26 homes:
- 11 were reserved for buyers earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI)
- 1 was available to a buyer earning up to 100% AMI
- 6 were available at 120% AMI
- 8 were sold at market rate, six of which were new construction
- 66% were minority homebuyers
That mix was intentional.
For decades, we have been working at ELDI to realize the community’s vision of a vibrant, mixed-income East Liberty with housing opportunities for people across a range of incomes. And while we have largely achieved that goal, maintaining that balance is easier said than done.
Why the mix matters
We’ve all seen what can happen when investment returns to a neighborhood without enough attention to affordability: housing prices rise, longtime residents have fewer options, and the people who helped shape a community can find it increasingly difficult to remain there.
While East Liberty is far from perfect, our experience revitalizing the neighborhood over the past several decades has shown what can happen when residents, community development organizations, public agencies, funders, and other partners work together around a shared vision.
Today, 38% of rental units in East Liberty are long-term affordable. And over the past seven years, we’ve increasingly turned our attention to expanding affordable and attainable homeownership opportunities as well, creating 71 homes to date.
This project is one piece of that larger effort.
It is also a prime example of something that has long been important to our approach to housing: affordable homes should look and feel like any other home in a neighborhood.
To see what we mean, just swipe through the 26 completed homes below.
Some of these homes were sold at market rate, while others were reserved for income-qualified buyers. Some were newly constructed, while others were rehabs. But the important thing is that you can’t tell which is which.
“What’s beautiful about this project is that the market-rate homes are indistinguishable from the affordable ones,” shared ELDI Director of Operations, Ted Melnyk. “Because that’s exactly how it should be. Everyone deserves a safe, beautiful home, no matter their income level.”
Finding a new use for an existing financing tool
Creating high-quality homes at prices that remain within reach for buyers at different income levels requires more than good design. It also requires finding ways to close the gap between what a home costs to develop and what an affordable buyer can afford.
For this project, one of the most important pieces of that puzzle was applying for financing through the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program. This is a federal program designed to encourage private investment in low-income and economically distressed communities. But with a limited amount of available funding, securing NMTC financing requires a strong project, the right partners, and a structure that meets the program’s requirements.
NMTCs are also typically used to finance commercial or mixed-use developments rather than for-sale affordable housing. However, several years ago, our partners at the consulting firm Smith NMTC Associates saw another possibility.
“We realized that NMTCs could be a great tool for affordable for-sale housing developments,” explained Howard Smith, co-founder of Smith NMTC Associates. “At the time, everyone was focused on rental housing, but we really wanted to create wealth for individuals and families through homeownership, and there are very few community development tools available for non-profit developers who develop and sell affordable housing—and there’s definitely nothing out there that compares to this.”
Through an innovative deal structure designed by Smith NMTC Associates, we were able to successfully secure an NMTC award to help bring this project to fruition. The project was also made possible with funding from Pittsburgh Urban Initiatives, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA), and Dollar Bank.
Our spin-off Rising Tide Partners, was an early advocate for the project and helped bring the partners together around a shared vision for affordable homeownership in the East End. To make sure the development process ran smoothly, Main + Elm Development Company provided project management expertise, from the initial fundraising all the way through to construction.
From houses to homes
Of course, financing and development are only part of the story, with the end goal always being homeownership.
Today, homeowners like Tracey Hopkins and 25 others are putting down roots in these homes, building equity, and contributing their energy to our community.
For all of us at ELDI, that is what makes this final milestone worth celebrating. These are no longer just properties on a development list or homes moving through construction—they now belong to people who are making them their own.
And collectively, they represent another step toward the mixed-income community we have been working toward for decades.
Building on what we learned
While this project is officially complete, we’re already looking at how the model can be used again and are in the early stages of gathering predevelopment funding to design and build 14 new houses in Larimer. This will be our second NMTC project, and to date, we have secured funding from the URA and the Neighborhood Community Development Fund to begin work this fall. This new project will build on what we learned so we can continue innovating creative ways to make affordable and attainable homeownership possible across the East End.
Because if there is one thing this project reinforced, it is that creating affordable for-sale housing is rarely simple, but with the right partners, financing, and long-term community vision, it can be done—and the final result is always worth the effort.