On the Town of Erie’s 150th anniversary, town officials launched applications for its first median affordable housing program. Within the first few minutes of applications opening, they already saw more applicants than the number of homes available to sell.
This program aims to make living in Erie more affordable for people who work there through a median-income housing project. Cheesman Street Residence homes are expected to be in the $300K to $400K range, which is about half the current median price for homes in Erie, (right now at about $770,000). The project for 35 affordable units comes from a partnership with the town of Erie and the development group Vertikal.
As a managing partner with Vertikal, Walker Thrash has been working on the Cheesman Street Residences for the last two years.
“It’s important for us to work on things within our own neighborhoods and towns that are a public benefit,” Thrash said, “because everybody’s looking at it on the table right now trying to figure out, really, how do we deliver this type of product?”