REPORTED BY COOPER"S FERRY: NEW MODERN, HIGH-QUALITY AFFORDABLE HOUSING TO BE DEVELOPED IN CENTERVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD
The revitalization of Camden’s Centerville neighborhood reached another milestone last week, as The Housing Authority of the City of Camden (HACC) and The Michaels Organization officially broke ground on Branch Village Townhomes. Mayor Frank Moran, Congressman Donald Norcross, and other city and community leaders were among those to join Centerville residents to celebrate the construction of modern, high-quality affordable housing on the former site of Clement T. Branch Village, the last traditional public housing development in the Mt. Ephraim corridor.
The reconstruction of the affordable housing community is made possible in part through a highly competitive $13.2 million federal Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, which has in turn allowed millions of other dollars to be leveraged by the City of Camden, HACC, Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, The Michaels Organization, and Better Tomorrows, a local nonprofit that supports low-income housing communities.
Designed by a Camden-based architectural and planning firm, Haley Donovan, the 72 apartments will feature a variety of one- to three-bedroom layouts in nine townhome buildings, each providing modern and spacious living areas, Energy-Star appliances, in-unit washers and dryers, and sustainable flooring. Two new public roads will be introduced into the neighborhood, breaking up the “superblock” that isolated former residents of Clement T. Branch from the rest of the neighborhood, and the new community is designed in accordance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development.