After 40 years of no new properties, the Haverhill Housing Authority aims to bring 34 apartments to Hilldale Avenue by 2028.
Although in the earliest stage, the quasi-public agency plans to spend $28 million on land it owns at 230 Hilldale Ave. Executive Director Clara Ruiz Vargas detailed the plans recently for WHAV.
There are preliminary “plans that have been drawn up, of the idea of what we would like to have done in that area.”
The site held the authority’s offices decades prior and currently has a daycare run by Community Action. Vargas said the daycare will remain and plans to include a community room as well. A City Council hearing is still a ways out, and Vargas said the first step is environmental review.
With $3.5 million from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vargas said she expects the federal government to also provide most of the other $24.5 million. The rest will come from a mixture of loans, the agency’s own money and other sources.
Ten of the 34 units will be filled by tenants from one of the authority’s developments on South Warren Street. Vargas said the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities encourages municipalities to consolidate affordable units to make them easier to maintain.
As WHAV first reported last fall, the Housing Authority is also moving forward with eight units of affordable senior housing to 335 Groveland St. Vargas said one building with four units needs to be renovated and another built. The new structure will include one unit designed for a person with disabilities in addition to three standard one-bedrooms. She added that her agency received around $1.1 million and is waiting on legal documentation before she can use the money to search for contractors.
Vargas pointed to the statewide housing shortage as motivating these purchases.
“Our waitlist is so long. I mean, I have several programs that I do run in the Housing Authority, and, still, all the waitlists are, at least, more than five years,” she said. “I decided when I was appointed to be the executive director two years ago, my promise was I was going to try my best to build more housing because we need it.”
She started at the authority as a receptionist.
“I’ve always had goals in my life. The last goal in my life, on my bucket list, was, ‘I would like to work for a state agency one day.’ I used to be a business owner, and I closed my shop down after 10 years and I said, ‘hmm, I think this is an opportunity, even if I start as a receptionist and just grow.’ And that’s what happened.”
Feeling she made a change to the authority, she said she will be satisfied retiring in seven to 10 years knowing she helped house at least one more person.