Portfolio Partner Profile

Preservation of Affordable Housing

Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and steward affordable rental housing to provide stability, hope and economic security to low- and moderate-income individuals and families. POAH has rescued and restored some of America’s most ‘at risk’ rental housing. POAH owns and operates more than 10,000 affordable rental apartments at more than 100 properties in nine states and the District of Columbia.

POAH is known nationally for its ability to develop innovative financing structures and to close complex deals which preserve long-term housing affordability for seniors, individuals with disabilities and families priced out of the housing market. POAH has also successfully influenced a range of public policies to address the nation’s housing preservation challenges. Calvert Impact Capital's financing helps POAH move quickly to acquire and preserve affordable properties that are at risk of being converted to market-rate housing or other uses.

Featured Impact Story

Impact Story

Affordable housing preservation with community buy-in

In 2008, at the invitation of concerned residents, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) acquired the former Grove Parc Apartments, a 504-unit Section 8 housing development between Chicago’s 60th and 63rd Streets in Woodlawn that was marked for closure. Where buildings targeted for evictions and foreclosure once stood, new, mixed-income and mixed-use buildings are now lining those streets – drawing visitors, commuters and pedestrians back to this neighborhood. All the former Grove Parc households were guaranteed new homes in Woodlawn, so there was no displacement. The original units were supplemented with market and moderate-income phases to meet a renewed demand for market-rate-for-sale and rental housing.

Ultimately, nearly 1,000 mixed-income units will be created through new construction and the revitalization of vacant multi-unit buildings across the community. As a result, Woodlawn is one of only a few South Side communities in Chicago where housing sales are rebounding, new mixed-use buildings are breaking ground and a national grocer chain is opening a 48,000-square-foot full-service store. Today, Woodlawn is a neighborhood on the rose – where new and renovated mixed-income and market-rate housing, schools, restaurants and retail stores are filling its historic blocks and strengthening the vibrancy of this community. Across the neighborhood, POAH has created more than 600 market and affordable rental opportunities.

Photo credits to POAH.