Housing

Inside the $1 Billion Bid to Rescue Affordable Housing

A new partnership between housing groups aims to give nonprofit developers the resources they need to preserve affordable apartments. 

Coggins Square Apartments (courtesy NAHT)

In normal times, the deal to rehab Coggins Square Apartments might have been a very minor victory for advocates of preserving affordable housing. But these are not normal times.

The nearly 20-year-old building — a modest transit-adjacent apartment building in Walnut Creek, California, just northeast of Oakland — is getting a $16 million facelift, and its developers will preserve its existing 86 units as affordable housing for residents making under 60% of area median household income, with some units set aside for tenants earning much less.