Community Housing Development Corporation

of North Richmond

 

Changing Lives, Block by Block

 

Wood Estates

Once a magnet for crime, the former site of Wood Elementary School at Pennsylvania Avenue and 18th Street is now home to 18 families. When the school was closed in 1995, the abandoned building attracted garbage, drug dealing and gang activity. By 1998, an active neighborhood group, the Belding-Wood Neighborhood Council, was lobbying hard for development of the site, which was negatively affecting the quality of life in the neighborhood.

After several other developers failed to build on the site, CHDC purchased it from the school district and met with the neighborhood council, which requested completely detached single-family housing, rather than more densely populated townhouses.  Thanks to a partnership with the City of Richmond, CHDC was able to build 18 single-family homes in 1999. Of these homes, 11 were targeted for low-income families earning under 80 percent of the Area Median Income ($35,580).  The balance were sold to families earning under 120 percent of the Area Median Income ($89,000).

Funding for Wood Estates was provided by the City of Richmond's Redevelopment Agency and Home Fund. Silent second mortgages were made available by the City of Richmond.

©2005 Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond  

1535A Third Street     Richmond, CA 94801     Phone: (510) 412-9290     Fax: (510) 215-9276