Mon Sep 23 22:46:54 UTC 2024: ## Louisville Foundation Funds Affordable Housing Project in Russell Neighborhood
**LOUISVILLE, KY** – The James Graham Brown Foundation has awarded a $575,000 grant to Housing Partnership, Inc. (HPI), a local nonprofit dedicated to creating affordable housing opportunities in Louisville. The funding will be used to complete the first floor of the Gateway on Broadway project, a revitalization effort of a vacant five-story warehouse in the Russell neighborhood.
The Gateway on Broadway project will transform the historic building into a community resource center, housing HPI’s offices, and providing a meeting space for local nonprofits and service providers. The project also includes the development of 116 affordable apartments for low-income seniors.
“This funding will help us create a vital Community Resource Center and relocate HPI’s offices to the West End, where we can better serve our neighbors and provide essential services to the community,” said HPI CEO Andrew Hawes.
The project has been lauded by local residents like Sherie Simumba, who lives in the Russell neighborhood. “It’s been abandoned for a while,” she said, “Louisville has a lot of empty buildings around here. I am glad they are trying to make it out to an apartment.”
The warehouse, with a rich history as a candy factory, cigarette manufacturing facility, and even a veterans affairs office where Muhammad Ali appealed his draft classification, has been a source of blight in the community.
“Sad to know that a building of this size has been blighting the community for that long,” said Hawes. “It is going to have a tremendous effect on revitalization efforts in west Louisville in addition to providing housing.”
The first two floors of the building are expected to be completed by December, with the entire project anticipated to be finished in May.
First Piper 