JULY 30

Baltimore – Deputy Director Bill Ariano joined city officials and other key partners for groundbreaking on the North Avenue Gateway apartments, a project that will create jobs and put more than $14 million into the economy as the revitalization of the city’s West North Ave. corridor continues.

The new 64-unit affordable housing complex will replace a block of abandoned row houses and vacant lots that some residents say has been plagued by crime and drugs. Developer Kevin Bell, senior vice president of The Woda Group LLC, says he hopes the transformation of that part of North Ave. will bring more business and investment to the corridor.

Financing for the project was made possible through DHCD’s rental housing production program and low income housing tax credits. Despite the fragile economy, the O’Malley-Brown administration funded 24 affordable rental housing projects last year, putting more than $364 million into the state economy and generating much-needed jobs.

That momentum will continue through Governor O’Malley’s $17.5 million Rental Housing Works initiative, which will generate an estimated $332 million in total project costs, create 1,300 jobs and add 2,000 affordable rental housing units for hardworking families, senior citizens and persons with special needs. It brings DHCD’s total FY2013 budget for rental housing programs to $44 million.