The Chester County Department of Community Development has received an Award of Excellence from the National Association for County Community and Economic Development for the creation of its Affordable Housing Developer Collaborative. Pictured with the award are (left to right) Chester County Department of Community Development Planning Supervisor Trish Hennessy, Deputy Director Shaun Bollig, and Director Dolores Colligan.
The Chester County Department of Community Development has received an Award of Excellence from the National Association for County Community and Economic Development (NACCED) for the creation of its Affordable Housing Developer Collaborative.
The award, announced at the NACCED conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, was presented to Chester County, citing the efforts of the County’s Partnership to End Homelessness initiative to bring together property developers and organizations to find ways to create more affordable housing options.
As the award announcement noted, “Chester County’s Affordable Housing Developer Collaborative brought together regional groups to address geographically-specific needs, leading to new partnerships with property developers, non-profits and municipalities to discover opportunities (for affordable housing) that otherwise may have been dismissed.”
Dolores Colligan, Director of the Chester County Department of Community Development, said, “We want to ensure that everyone who lives in Chester County has housing options available to do so, but that means we must come up with a variety of ways to make this happen. By establishing the Affordable Housing Developer Collaborative, we have been able to bring together partners that can, from the outset, talk through land-use, zoning, and public transportation regulations, as well as house purchase and rental needs, to move forward with affordable housing options.”
In 2022, the Chester County Commissioners pledged a commitment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s House America initiative, with a goal of adding 1,000 affordable units in the county over 10 years.
“The Affordable Housing Developer Collaborative has been instrumental in getting Chester County to over 30 percent of that goal in the first two years, and we are pleased to receive the NACCED national recognition,” added Dolores Colligan.
“We will continue planning and partnering with our municipalities, developers, and our state and federal government to find more places, especially in our urban centers, to build more homes that are safe and affordable.”
To read more about the many housing support programs in Chester County, and the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness, go to www.chesco.org/housing.
