SALEM — Salem Heights, the city’s largest affordable housing complex, will undergo a major rehabilitation of its Pope Street residential building this summer.
The $40 million improvement plan will include both interior and exterior upgrades to the 48-year-old, 283-unit building that houses seniors and working families, including more than 170 children.
“(The remodeling) is long overdue and we’re grateful to have it happening,” Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said. “We’ve had challenges in this building, from elevators breaking down to mechanical units not working properly, and so this is going to be a significant upgrade in the mechanicals and ventilation and some of the interior buildout.”
Salem Heights was built during a time when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was emphasizing the construction of large-scale affordable housing complexes, Driscoll said.
National nonprofit organization Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc. (POAH) acquired Salem Heights in 2003 to preserve its affordability.