RIHousing Seeks Proposals to Revitalize South Providence’s Barbara Jordan II Apartments

Providence, RI – Today, RIHousing announces the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of the Barbara Jordan II apartments.

Barbara Jordan II is a housing development in Upper South Providence which includes 26 two- and three-story apartment buildings situated on scattered sites totaling 2.75 acres. The 26 buildings contain a total of 74 apartments, all of which are currently vacant.

RIHousing crafted its RFP with consideration for the key takeaways derived from its nine-month Community Engagement Process. The Community Engagement Process was designed to foster a meaningful dialogue with Upper South Providence residents, anchor institutions, neighborhood organizations and other local stakeholders to create a vision for the redevelopment of Barbara Jordan II.

The Community Engagement Process consisted of three public meetings, two steering committee meetings, a youth focused event, and a final meeting to present key takeaways from the process. Additionally, two community liaisons were hired to help with engagement and local neighborhood involvement, and two high school students were hired as Leaders in Training.

“It was important for RIHousing to gather input from residents and stakeholders in Upper South Providence,” said Eric Shorter, Director of Development for RIHousing, “Elements of the RFP incorporate feedback we heard, and we have encouraged prospective developers to review this feedback as they prepare their proposals.”

The RFP requires that the selected developer(s) commit to a minimum of 74 apartments that are affordable to low income residents. Scoring criteria in the RFP that reflects community input includes requiring a minimum percentage of work to be completed by local minority and women contractors and incentives for long term affordability periods. Additionally, developers will be awarded points if they propose to serve households experiencing homelessness, have special needs or who have an income less than 30% of the Area Median Income ($22,100 for a household of three, per the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development FY2019 income limits).

In addition to the staff from RIHousing, the review committee will be comprised of representatives from the following funding organizations: City of Providence, the Providence Housing Authority, the Housing Resources Commission, RI Local Initiative Support Corporation, and a former senior executive of Enterprise Community Investment with extensive community development experience.

The deadline to submit a proposal is 5:00 PM, Friday August 30, 2019. To see the key findings and feedback from the Community Engagement Process or to access the RFP, please visit www.RIHousing.com/BarbaraJordan2.

About RIHousing
RIHousing works to ensure that all people who live in Rhode Island can afford a healthy, attractive home that meets their needs. RIHousing provides loans, grants, education and assistance to help Rhode Islanders find, rent, buy, build and keep a good home. Created by the General Assembly in 1973, RIHousing is a self-sustaining corporation and receives no state funding for operations. For more information regarding RIHousing, visit www.RIHousing.com or follow us @RIHousing on Facebook and Twitter.