For more than two decades, the Housing Authority of the City of Newport (HACN) has been transforming the North End of Newport, Rhode Island—revitalizing housing, expanding opportunity, and redefining affordable housing. Their work is a powerful example of how long-term vision and community partnerships can create lasting impact.

Kelly McElwain, manager of research and industry intelligence at the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC), highlights HACN’s efforts in a feature story for NERC NAHRO. You can read the full story on NERC NAHRO's Community Spotlight page or below.

PAHRC is the research entity of HAI Group, an insurer that has been exclusively serving public and affordable housing for more than 35 years. PAHRC’s work focuses on the impact that affordable homes bring to families and communities.

A Communitywide Transformation in the North End of Newport

For the past 20 years, the Housing Authority of the City of Newport (HACN) has partnered with residents and city leaders to revitalize the North End of Newport, Rhode Island. This ambitious plan helped Newport’s lowest-income neighborhood thrive by stimulating business development, creating new education and economic opportunities, connecting the area to the thriving downtown, and improving the living conditions for residents.

Newport Heights

HACN’s North End revitalization began in 2002 with Tonomy Hill’s redevelopment into Newport Heights. Tonomy Hill, comprised of 498 pre-World War II barrack-style public housing units, was initially built to provide housing to staff working on the nearby Navy base. HACN partnered with Trinity Financial and Valley Affordable Housing to demolish and replace this property with 350 New England-style cottage homes, comprising public housing, affordable homes, market-rate homes, and homeownership opportunities. Multiple funding sources, including several Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocations, Public Housing Capital Funds, HOME funds, state financing, and a $20 million HOPE VI grant, catalyzed the redevelopment effort, split across five phases.

HACN and its partners incorporated numerous design principles to create a sense of community among residents at Newport Heights, including:

• Adding sidewalks to integrate neighborhoods.
• Redesigning roads to promote bus access.
• Incorporating porches and parks to create community connection points.
• Installing underground powerlines to beautify the neighborhood.

Additionally, the design of Newport Heights resembles single-family housing to blend into the surrounding community.

Learn more about the preservation of Newport Heights.

Park Holm

Building upon the success of Newport Heights, HACN began to preserve Park Holm in 2009. Built in the 1940s as naval military housing, HACN has been steadily revitalizing the 262 units into townhouse-style homes. Each phase of Park Holms’ redevelopment comprises approximately 50 units. HACN aims to rebuild each public housing unit as affordable housing with one-for-one replacement. Currently in the fourth phase, HACN is working to secure the funding to finish the fifth phase of the development.

HACN expanded upon the design principles implemented in Newport Heights to establish a sense of community by honoring the legacy of community champions. HACN named one of the streets at the redeveloped property Jade Way in honor of the late Jade Hall, who was the president of the Newport Residents Council and a longtime advocate for the community.

To establish broad buy-in to the preservation of Park Holm, HACN strategically selected the redevelopment phases. Park Holm is one block from Newport School District’s only elementary school. In addition to providing the children of Park Holm with close access to their school and teachers, it also allows HACN to showcase what modern affordable housing can look like to the broader community. HACN selected development phases to demonstrate their progress, emphasizing the continued need for the later stages of the redevelopment.

Building opportunity

The North End revitalization helped build a sense of community for families by focusing beyond the bricks and mortars of Park Holm and Newport Heights. HACN also supported the families living behind the front doors by partnering with numerous community-based organizations to provide a suite of supportive services and partnering with the city to implement an economic development plan to expand opportunities available in the neighborhood and help residents thrive.

When the Navy decided to sell a parcel in the North End of Newport in 1996, the city developed a plan to repurpose the land. This led to the establishment of the Newport campus of the Community College of Rhode Island and the creation of a Head Start facility and a Community Health Center run by the East Bay Community Action Program. This later inspired the community vision planning for the Florence Gray Center run by the HACN in the North End. This investment expanded access to jobs, educational opportunities, and resources for Park Holm and Newport Heights residents. To further expand opportunities for residents, HACN sold a plot of land adjacent to Newport Heights to help the local school district build a new high school, the Paul Crowley East Bay Met Center, which opened in 2014. HACN also developed partnerships with numerous organizations to bring education, health, and workforce development services to residents. Many of these programs are offered on-site at the Florence Gray Center, a community space adjacent to Newport Heights currently undergoing a $7.5 million renovation led by HACN. Organizations HACN partners with to help residents in the North End thrive include:

• East Bay Community Action Program offers programs that support workforce development, education, and literacy.
• Boys and Girls Club of Newport County provides on-site tutoring, education programs, and mentorship opportunities for children at Park Holm.
• Women's Resource Center facilitates on-site domestic violence prevention and intervention programs.
• FabNewport provides a makerspace program that provides mentorship and career development opportunities for families.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center offers on-site food assistance.
• Newport Head Start Center provides HACN families with priority access to some services.
• Newport Health Equity Zone mobilizes community members to center health equity.
• Bike Newport lends bikes and organizes hiking and biking programs for children at the nearby Big Blue Bike Barn.

What’s next

In addition to preserving existing affordable housing, HACN is also seeking to expand the supply of affordable homes in Newport. HACN secured planning funds to build 50 new affordable one-bedroom units for older adults and people with disabilities. Also on the horizon is a vision to build 50 additional homes that provide lease-to-purchase homeownership opportunities for lower-wage working families in Newport.

Keys to success

Building resident trust

An early lesson HACN learned was the importance of building trust among residents. Residents initially opposed the redevelopment of Tonomy Hill, fearing displacement and gentrification. HACN brought residents on board by establishing a sensitive relocation plan that reassured residents they would have a first-priority right to return if they remained in good standing. Resident buy-in increased in subsequent phases once HACN demonstrated how this redevelopment could improve the quality of their home and neighborhood and how residents were welcome back once reconstruction was complete. Over time, HACN has cultivated a strong partnership with the Newport Resident Council, with the residents being their strongest advocates.

Centering residents

HACN prioritizes residents’ needs when allocating limited redevelopment resources. This means focusing on modernizing building interiors and living areas before beautifying building exteriors which helps residents feel proud and comfortable in their homes and is core to building their trust.

Boosting development experience

After redeveloping Newport Heights in partnership with Trinity Financial and Valley Affordable Housing, HACN wanted to retain more ownership and control over its next redevelopment effort. To accomplish this, HACN hired a development consultant, TAG Associates, who worked with them to identify a private investor, Boston Financial Investment Management to allow HACN to establish a performance-based contract to retain ownership of the property. The ability to retain ownership of the property capitalized on the trusting relationships it built with its residents and broader community partners.

Bringing on strong partners

Revitalizing of the North End takes a village. These partners range from residents who shape the vision to funders who invest in it and the PHA staff, community service partners, leaders, and consultants who carry it out. Organizing a coalition of strong partners helps set the revitalization up for success.

A commitment to preservation from community leaders

Preserving public housing in the North End wouldn’t be possible without the continued investment from state and local agencies. These agencies have demonstrated their commitment to balancing the construction of new affordable housing with the preservation of existing affordable housing by funding each phase of Newport Heights and Park Holm redevelopment. At the center of this support has been RI Housing, the State housing finance agency. RI Housing provided not only some of the critical funding needed to preserve the affordable housing portfolio, but the design, construction, financing and other technical assistance required to make these complex mixed-finance development deals work.

The legacy of the revitalization of the North End

The impact of the sweeping revitalization of Newport’s North End neighborhood is multifaced. Over the past two decades, these investments helped expand education, health, and employment resources in the neighborhood with the highest poverty rate across the city. A study from a local university found that the redevelopment of Newport Heights was also associated with a reduction in crime, making the North End a safer place to live. The revitalization of the North End helped rebrand public housing and the value HACN could provide to the community. Redeveloping Newport Heights and Park Holm helped HACN redefine what affordable housing looks like in Newport, making it nearly indistinguishable from market-rate rental housing in the city known for its upscale mansions. HACN also established itself as a trusted partner among residents and local and state leaders, catalyzing opportunities to preserve and build affordable housing across other neighborhoods of Newport. Ultimately, the revitalization of the North End created new opportunities to help its residents, and they thrive and are proud to call this neighborhood home.

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