Community Development Partners Celebrates St. Michael’s Ribbon Cutting in Riverside, CA

July 24, 2023

RIVERSIDE, Calif., July 24, 2023 – Community Development Partners (CDP) and Mercy House, alongside project partners, celebrated the grand opening of St. Michael’s Apartments in Riverside, Calif., today. Located at 4074 Jackson Street in Riverside, Calif., St. Michael’s Apartments is a two-story, 50-unit, garden-style affordable housing development that offers 30 one and 20 two-bedroom housing options for low-income families earning up to 30, 50, 60 and 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). Of the 50 homes, 24 are set aside for chronically homeless individuals and/or those with special needs and one is a non-revenue producing manager’s unit.

The grand opening ceremony took place on Monday, July 24, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and included a ribbon cutting, speeches from various key partners, and a reception for all guests in attendance. Key remarks were provided by Kyle Paine, President of CDP; Larry Haynes, CEO of Mercy House; Lucero Aguiniga, District Representative of Senator Richard Roth, who also presented a certificate; Meena Bavan, Director of the Los Angeles Office of Public Housing at HUD; Heidi Marshall, Executive Director of Riverside County; Gaby Plascencia, City of Riverside Ward 5 Councilwoman; Reverend Canon Kelli Grace Kurtz of All Saints Episcopal Church, who offered a land acknowledgement; and Rabbi Suzanne Singer, Emerita of Temple Beth El Riverside.

The grand opening ceremony also included a blessing from The Right Reverend John Taylor, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; a native blessing song; a Northern and Southern Plains Blessing Dance; and a closing prayer by The Reverend Canon Doctor Mary Crist.

“We’re very pleased to have been a part of making St. Michael’s Apartments a reality,” said Hunt Capital Partners Executive Managing Director Dana Mayo. “In California’s Riverside County, rents have increased by 14.6% and families need to earn 2.3 times the state minimum wage to afford the average monthly asking rents for housing currently available in the area. St Michael’s Apartments addresses the immediate need for affordable housing and ensures that there’s quality housing for some of the county’s lowest income renters.”

As the lead servicer provider, Mercy House will deliver supportive services that are designed to empower and equip tenants through services such as financial literacy, computer training, homebuyer education, resume building, nutrition classes, health information/awareness and more. Riverside University Health System is also providing the California’s No Place Like Home (NPLH) tenants with services and activities that promote tenant self-sufficiency, independence and community integration, which includes but is not limited to assistance with move-in, goal planning, linkage to medical care and educational services, eviction prevention, wellness and recovery groups and social and community building activities.

“The goal of St. Michael’s Apartments was always to expand on the community serving work the Church has been doing for years. We were able to broaden that impact by adding housing and developing programs, partnering with Mercy House as our lead service provider,” said Kyle Paine, President of CDP. “The result of the collaboration is St. Michael’s Apartments — a community that combines wrap-around services with permanent affordable housing to create a high quality, stable, and uplifting space for those most in need, including individuals experiencing homelessness and working households struggling to find and maintain housing.”

“A few years ago, City leadership reached out to us at Mercy House and asked if we would partner with St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in their desire to serve the unhoused. The creation of permanent housing and working with CDP again were the obvious choices,” said Larry Haynes, CEO of Mercy House. “On a personal note, as both an Episcopalian and Riverside native, the development of St. Michael’s Apartments is particularly satisfying. This is exactly what ending homelessness looks like.”

St. Michael’s Apartments represents a successful public-private partnership with collaboration between developers, a nonprofit, the St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the City, the County, the State and various funding partners. The development team includes Community Development Partners as the developer, Precision General Commercial Contractors as the general contractor, Escher GuneWardena Architecture as the architect of record and FPI Management as the property management agent.

Hunt Capital Partners committed $8.5 million in federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity and syndicated the federal tax credits through its multi-investor fund, Hunt Capital Partners Tax Credit Fund 41. PNC Bank provided $13.9 million in construction financing. Citi Community Capital provided $4.8 million in permanent financing. Other sources include a City of Riverside soft loan of $2.0 million and a California Department of Housing and Community Development soft loan of $4.3 million. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church provided CDP with the land to build St. Michael’s Apartments.