LOVELAND, CO — Loveland Housing Authority took another step toward ending veterans’ homelessness Thursday with a grand opening ceremony for The Edge, a 70-unit affordable residential community near East 15th Street and Boyd Lake Avenue.
Built to provide affordable housing to working families, veterans and survivors of the 2012 Hyde Park Fire and 2013 floods, The Edge includes five residential buildings as well as a clubhouse, community garden and playground.
More than 20 of the available 70 units at The Edge are dedicated to providing permanent supportive housing to homeless veterans. Referrals for these units come from Rocky Mountain Human Services — funded through the Veterans Administration, other governmental agencies and private partners— whose staff members work with homeless veterans and provide services to them.
The Edge veterans program operates on the Housing First permanent supportive housing model, which contributes to long-term housing stability, improved physical and behavioral health outcomes, and reduced use of crisis services such as emergency departments, hospitals, and jails. According to a study published in March 2015 by the Journal of American Medical Association, over a 24-month period, up to 77 percent of participants in the study who received housing and support remained in stable housing.
The Edge was developed in partnership with Wells Fargo and Sugar Creek Capital as equity investors, purchasing the federal and state tax credits that were awarded this project by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).
Pinkard Construction, a design-build and CM/GC senior and affordable housing expert, provided construction management/general contracting services for the $20 million development, which includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units designed to meet Enterprise Green Communities criteria. Construction completed December 2016. OZ Architecture was the architect-of-record.
Image courtesy of Pinkard Construction
