‘A dream come true’: Affordable complex for seniors, people with disabilities gets underway in Allentown

• HDC MidAtlantic is building a four-story, 49-unit affordable apartment complex at 1528 W. Hamilton St., Allentown 
• Apartments will be offered to residents older than 55 and people with intellectual disabilities 
• Applications for the building are set to open in spring

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Bill Meltzer realized a dream decades in the making Friday afternoon as he helped a developer and local officials break ground on a new affordable housing complex in Allentown.

The 49-unit complex at 1528 W. Hamilton St. — “creatively named” 1528 West Apartments — will offer apartments to residents 55 and older who make less than $45,300 a year, HDC MidAtlantic Chief Executive Officer Dana Hanchin said.

The developer is partnering with the Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center to ensure 10 of those apartments go to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Metzler — who co-founded the center in 1995, several years after son Bryan was born with the condition — called Friday’s groundbreaking “a dream come true.”

“Having a son with IDD … it’s been a challenge from day one,” Meltzer said. “But it’s a challenge that we met with our friends, with our family and others that also have family members with IDD.

“We always thought we could make anything happen. It took a little bit of time for this one to happen, but it did.”

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are among the most vulnerable groups and find it “very difficult” to secure affordable housing, Meltzer said.

The project in Allentown has been in the works for about five years, with a slew of challenges causing setbacks, not least a multiyear pandemic, Meltzer said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.

Representatives from HDC, the Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center and the Alliance for Building Communities, which also partnered on the project, were joined by Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, City Council members and dozens of others at Friday’s ceremony.

City, state support

City officials and state agencies helped HDC get the project off the ground with millions in funding.

Allentown City Council this year approved contributing $1 million of the city’s federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act on the complex, as well as more than $800,000 from other sources.

HDC said it hoped to break ground on the project this summer, but the developer was faced with a $1.6 million funding shortfall after initial cost projections were driven up by the coronavirus pandemic, labor shortages, interest rate hikes and other issues, an executive said.

The project has also gotten $1.2 million in low-income housing tax credits from the state Housing Finance Agency.

HDC expects the project to cost about $18 million, which will generate triple that amount in economic activity, CEO Hanchin said Friday.

The company has said it will look to hire local contractors, as well as minority- and women-owned businesses, during construction.

Allentown zoning officials approved the project in January after members of the neighboring Community Music School voiced their concerns about parking issues in the area.

The four-story complex will feature 35 one-bedroom apartments and 14 units with two bedrooms.

Monthly rents will be $340-$938 for one-bedrooms units and from $408-$1,169 for two-bedroom apartments, according to HDC MidAtlantic.

Construction is expected to start this year; the developer hopes to open applications in spring.