HousingWorks RI - Westerly

Westerly

The facts:

$321,950: Price of the median single-family home sold last year
$2,570: Typical monthly payment for that house (including principal, interest, taxes and insurance)
$102,793: The income you need to afford that house
$1,104: Average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment
$44,160: The income you need to afford that apartment
$33,901: Average annual wage in Westerly***
962: Households in Westerly paying more than half their income for housing
543 (5.49%): Housing units that qualify as affordable

Click here for footnotes.

Affordable homes in Westerly:

Bowling Lane

Renovation of 18 turn-of-the-century mill buildings into 36 modern apartments by Action Community Land Trust

Westerly

3 condos developed by Habitat for Humanity of South County, with affordability preserved through a housing land trust

Westerly's North End Crime Watch

Olympia Graeve & Adrian “Pete” Pelchat are members of the Board of the North End Crime Watch and Community Development in Westerly, a neighborhood association that came together 12 years ago to take back their neighborhood from drugs, crime, and neglect. The Crime Watch is completing its first project of four affordable, owner-occupied duplexes in the neighborhood.

Olympia: "The Crime Watch started about 12 years ago with Pete Pelchat, who’s been living on this street since he was a boy, and Rev. McClure, who’s the Pleasant Street Baptist Church’s pastor. They both had a vision of getting this area up and running. They’d seen the housing declining, they’d seen the drug activity. It was an undesirable place to live. So we originally formed the North End Crime Watch, just as a neighborhood watch reporting crime.

As we progressed, one of the visions we had was to bring in homeownership that would stabilize the street and bring pride back into the community, so we became a nonprofit organization. Rhode Island Housing realized there was a nonprofit organization here and asked us if we would be wiling take on a project redeveloping houses in the North End. That was our vision. They had the resources, so it was a very good partnership. That’s where it brings us today, we are now completing our fourth home of affordable housing – we’ll be closing October 15.

It’s been very good to the community. It’s stabilizing the area. It’s really cleaned up. People are coming back to the community, businesses are coming back, and it’s just been a very positive thing. In addition, throughout the last four or five years, the crime watch came on the Historic National Register."

Adrian: "I’ve been here almost 60 years, I’ve lived here, and I bought a house here. The neighborhood was excellent. In the 1980s, we had a real estate boom, and people sold their houses. Absentee investors bought into these properties. They never did any repairs, and the neighborhood declined. So people were moving out and leaving. And we said, “what are we going to do?”

I decided not to move, to stay here to talk it over with the town officials and Rev. McClure. We got the North End Crime Watch started. After that, it was as we’re going now, we’re doing housing one step at a time.

Our goal is to change the name of the street, after all is said and done. When all the houses are done and the crime is gone, we’re going to go before the Town Council and change the name from Pierce Street to Pride Street. And I think that’s the icing on the cake."