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. NACCED cited 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. Dolores Colligan, director of the 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, Chester County commissioners set a goal of adding 1,000 affordable units in the county over 10 years.
Source: Chester County; 11/2/2023