Food Gatherers is graciously including us on a grant from the Knight Foundation to help support the 2010 Edible Avalon season!

TCF Bank Foundation has awarded Avalon a grant to help equip two new community centers with computers and internet access.

Avalon is also receiving an award from Washtenaw County’s ETCS fund to formalize and expand  our tenant employment program,

and Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority has committed to providing up to $500,000 towards the Near North project on north Main Street!

We ate great food, danced, laughed, learned and were inspired and moved by the amazing Mavis Staples!

There will be more details and pictures to follow, but for now… THANK YOU!

Tuesday night we were graced by the presence and voice of Mavis Staples at the Michigan Theater, in a truly inspiring benefit concert. Several hundred supporters, tenants and new friends joined us for the show.

On Thursday night we gathered at Zingerman’s Roadhouse for the Avalon annual Community Awards dinner - this year honoring our Community Stewards  Bob Guenzel and Russ Monahan and 2009 Tenant of the Year, Wanda Davis. Delicious food & wine and great company made for a memorable night for all!

And we’re still going! On Saturday, November 14th we’ll finish our week of events in true Ann Arbor style, with a dance party hosted byy Chuck Sipperly at the Elks Lodge. Join us for the fun - see our “Upcoming Events”  page for all the details!

Visit our Upcoming Events page for more details and ticket purchases!

We have a lot more hard work ahead of us to complete the project, but are very excited to have passed this essential milestone.

Thank you to everyone who attended this meeting, and past public hearings and city council meetings, to voice your support for the project and affordable, supportive housing in our community.

This year also saw the expansion of our Edible Avalon community vegetable gardens - a project that we have partnered on with Project Grow and Food Gatherers. We’re already harvesting greens, herbs, strawberries, tomatoes and much more from the six raised bed gardens. Each garden is located at an Avalon property, and tenants work with the help and guidance of volunteers. In addition to the gardening, there havebeen tons of fun and educational activities, including strawberry jam making and watermelon rind pickling classes, and a special session just for the kids of Avalon… how to build a sunflower fort!

If you are able to donate any of the below items, please contact Jude or call 734.663.5858, and we’d be happy to coordinate picking up the items and getting them to our tenants and shared community centers.

Twin Beds (mattress and box set)

A kitchen table and chairs

DVD player

Radio

Wii game system (with games)

Board Games

TV Converter box with Antenna

Here is a letter from Michael Appel, Avalon Housing Executive Director, regarding our involvement with the project.

Dear Avalon Friends:

As Near North—Avalon’s joint N. Main St. development with Three Oaks Group—moves through the planning approval process, we want to share with you our thoughts on the public discussion around the project, as well as how this initiative advances Avalon’s work.

Like every new construction project, Near North alters the landscape.  It offers a new group of residents access to our community and contributes to the ever-changing feel of Ann Arbor.  It advances development goals, including both identified housing needs of our community and strengthened operations for Avalon.  These are some of the reasons that Avalon takes the process for securing approval of this Planned Unit Development (PUD) so seriously.  With our partners, we have engaged in a discussion with neighborhood residents.  And while we have not resolved all areas under discussion, we believe the Near North project advances many of this community’s and Avalon’s goals.

Affordability:  Reflecting Avalon’s ongoing commitment to those least served by the private housing market, Near North sets a high and unprecedented standard for the provision of affordable units within a Central Area PUD.  

·        100% of the units are affordable.  Avalon’s participation along with zoning and financing commitments guarantees that this continues in perpetuity. 

·        All units are affordable to households with incomes no higher than 50% of the Area Median Income.  This equals $33,000 for a 2-person household—representing the wages of downtown service workers or entry-level employees at the University or U-M Hospital. 

·        One-third of the units utilize Section 8 rent subsidies to create affordability to persons with significantly lower incomes—those who have been homeless or those with a disability. 

The North Main Corridor:  The discussion also revolves around the character of this stretch of N. Main St. and the appropriateness of multi-family housing at this location.  With its mixture of uses, zoning and building design, this is exactly the kind of location that makes sense for mid-density multi-family residential use—neither the high rise, high density zoning found just a few blocks south within the downtown district, nor the lower density that predominates in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.  North Main St.’s higher traffic count and role as northern entryway to Ann Arbor make it the right location for well designed apartments.

Integrated Neighborhoods/Integrated Density:  A healthy community integrates multi-family housing—particularly affordable units—into areas with lower density residential uses.  By placing the denser housing on the major thoroughfare, the adjacent residential neighborhoods share in the City’s development goals while preserving the lower density character interior to the neighborhood.  North Central—historically a center for the African American community and a neighborhood with relatively lower housing costs and income—has seen a dramatic drop in racial diversity in recent decades and a parallel increase in incomes relative to Ann Arbor as a whole.  Near North can be part of our community’s balanced efforts to promote stable and diverse neighborhoods.

Strengthening Avalon:  Near North is part of a thoughtful and planned decision by Avalon to advance our mission and strengthen our operations.   Dedicating a portion of the units to supportive housing—Avalon’s historical focus—while integrating those units into a workforce housing project allows Near North to operate with less ongoing subsidy while allowing Avalon to meet additional housing goals of our community.  Near North contributes to a key focus of Avalon’s growth—developing a sustainable business model. 

Three Oaks Partnership:  This is the second time that Avalon has partnered with a private developer to further our mission.  Each party brings valuable resources.  Three Oaks Group brings land ownership, a strong development team, experience with debt financing and investments, and the necessary venture capital to move the project forward; Avalon brings experience with affordable housing finance, relationships throughout the affordable housing funding community, tax credit property management experience and a clear mission that is focused on Ann Arbor’s housing needs.  This partnership combines the private sector’s ability to compete in the Ann Arbor real estate market with the non-profit sector’s ability to buffer tenants from rising housing and land costs going forward.

Thoughtful Design:  By building with the slope, Near North’s design assures that our buildings are not higher than existing, adjacent residential structures outside the PUD.  It also reflects the scale of the smaller structures around it by breaking up its mass into smaller sections, by creating a varied façade with both differing setbacks and tiered heights.  (As a larger building, it can not replicate the surrounding scale, but it does recognize the difference and respond in its design.)  As with other Avalon developments, Near North supports community building and neighborhood relationships.  In balancing these concerns, Near North provides scale and character that respect existing conditions without locking in uniformity and locking out affordability.

Avalon is eager to engage our supporters and the wider community in this exciting opportunity to expand the supply of affordable housing while strengthening our role as a leader in the provision of quality, permanent affordable and supportive housing.  We invite you to tell us what you think.  Together with Three Oaks Group, we have created a website specific to the Near North project, www.nearnorthannarbor.org.  We invite you to take a look.   And feel free to contact us directly as well. 

Sincerely,

Michael Appel

Executive Director Development and Finance

More details and pictures ar coming soon, but for now - huge thanks to all for making such a difference! The gardens already look beautiful, and will continue to grow and bloom throughout the summer.

If you’re inspired to get involved, we have several other planting session planned in the next two weeks. Contact Jude for the dates - we’d love to have you join in the fun!