LOUISVILLE, KY – August 19, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — In front of the former St. Bartholomew school, Congressman John Yarmuth announced $3 million for Catholic Charities of Louisville and co-developer, The Housing Partnership, Inc., to develop the structure into 24 units of senior housing.
“Catholic Charities and the Housing Partnership continually make invaluable contributions to our community,” said Congressman Yarmuth. “I am thrilled that federal dollars will soon support this latest project, providing critically needed affordable housing options for Louisville seniors, as well as spurring economic development and creating jobs.”
The funding is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 Program which provides capital advances to finance the development of low-cost housing for the elderly.
The building, built in 1942, was used continuously as a school until 2006 when St. Bartholomew, St. Barnabas, and St. Pius X merged schools to form John Paul II Academy, located at St. Pius X. Since then the building has housed the Campenaro Mission, a Hispanic ministry, and Jefferson County Public Schools has taught English as a Second Language there. The parish has informed JCPS of the transition and is currently reviewing options to continue its ministry onsite.
“We are excited about the award,” said Fr. Peter Quan Do, Pastor at St. Bartholomew, “and happy to see that the building will continue to be used by the neighborhood.”
Since 2000, Catholic Charities has worked with parishes to adaptively reuse their vacant or underutilized parish properties for these types of projects.
“This work benefits the entire community,” said Steve Bogus, Executive Director of Catholic Charities. “It generates revenue for the parish while creatively reusing property to provide safe affordable housing essential for our seniors, especially those with fixed incomes.”
This is Catholic Charities seventh senior housing project and fifth with the Housing Partnership, Inc., a local non-profit which works to develop affordable housing opportunities throughout the community.
According to Mike Hynes, President of The Housing Partnership, “We value our partnership with Catholic Charities. Together, we’ve managed to preserve buildings that have always been great resources for the neighborhoods in which they sit. At the same time, we’ve created over 140 affordable apartments for Louisville’s lowest income seniors. The work on St. Bartholomew represents the latest successful development effort by our two organizations to provide affordable housing in an area with few options for extremely low income senior citizens.”
In addition to creating low-cost housing, another one of the project’s goals is to be environmentally conscious. Plans include the recycling and reuse of materials from demolition into the rehabilitation of the structure and incorporating features such as a rain garden to capture water runoff and solar panels to power common areas.
Construction is expected to begin in 2011.
