Holiday Neighborhood Receives Housing Award

Boulder Housing Partners (BHP) recently received an award from Colorado NAHRO for their work on the Holiday Neighborhood. BHP is Boulder's Housing Authority, a quasi-governmental agency that manages 984 rental units and section 8 vouchers, develops new and old properties, and strives to create a more equitable community in Boulder. The Holiday Neighborhood is located at the former Holiday drive-in theater site in North Boulder at Lee Hill Road and US 36. The award is the NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) Award for Innovations in Affordable Housing. The innovation in question is the financing plan to be able to offer a high proportion of affordable housing within the Holiday Neighborhood. The purchase of the Holiday drive in theater site in March of 1997 was handled by the City in coordination with BHP. Possible residents and neighbors were identified early in the development process, and a series of public meetings were held to determine what the various stakeholders wanted. Affordable housing was near the top of everyone’s list, especially the City's. With that in mind, BHP applied for federal, state, and city dollars to help with the purchase of the land and the City waived some of the development fees. This made it possible for BHP to sell the plots at substantially reduced rates, which could then be passed on to the buyers. By carefully selecting developers, doing the basic site and infrastructure work, and designating twice the minimum of units as affordable, BHP was able to ensure that 138 of Holiday's 333 new units will remain affordable in perpetuity. In addition, by mixing the affordable units throughout the neighborhood and ensuring that they look the same as the other units on the outside, BHP made it so that everyone in the neighborhood can participate equally without built-in discrimination.

Additional information about Holiday can be found at http://www.holidayneighborhood.com