Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano, left, chats at Bella Vista on
Monday with developer Jonah Mendalbaum
and Housing Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas
MIDDLETOWN – State and local officials celebrated the ribbon cutting
for Bella Vista apartments off Orange County Route 78 in Middletown on
Monday.
The 164-unit affordable housing development includes supportive services
for special needs and formerly homeless people.
It was constructed by Jonah Mandelbaum’s company, Warwick Properties.
Devon Management Corp. manages the property and Access: Support for Living,
a non-profit organization, provides support services to residents with
a history of homelessness and other special needs in 41 supportive units.
Financing for the project was provided by New York State Homes and Community
Renewal through federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, tax-exempt bonds,
and a subsidized loan.
The agency’s commissioner, RuthAnne Visnauskas, said statewide rents
generally have been outpacing incomes, resulting in the need for more
affordable housing.
“The pressure on people, whether it is young families, individuals,
seniors, veterans, to able to afford rent, that pressure is on year by
year so it was one of the reasons why we have launched this five-year,
$20 billion, 100,000 unit affordable housing plan to make sure that we
had a consistent year-by-year effort to produce housing like this from
Buffalo to the Bronx and everywhere between,” she said.
Access: Supports for Living President Amy Anderson-Winchell called the
Bella Vista project “an amazing accomplishment of public and private
partnership that is providing beautiful homes for people and allowing
us to support people with some complex needs to live independent, full,
wonderful, healthy lives,” she said.
Anderson-Winchell said her agency is supporting over 150 people with special
needs in multiple projects so people can live in full communities.
