C E L E B R A T I N G E X C E L L E N C E I N A F F O R D A B L E H O U S I N G

Built on patiently assembled parcels ofvacant or abandoned land, AvondaleGardens both blends into and lifts itssurroundings. Set in a historic but strug-gling inner-city neighborhood, AvondaleGardens brings 64 attractive one-, two-,and three-bedroom rental units to a met-ropolitan area with a critical shortage ofaffordable homes.

Aletheia House, one of Alabama’s lead-ing substance abuse programs, got intothe housing development business 10years ago because homeless graduates ofits residential treatment program neededhousing. Avondale Gardens is the orga-nization’s first project that is not limitedto serving residents with special needs,although at least 15 percent of thehomes at Avondale Gardens are set asidefor formerly homeless people who arerecovering from mental illness or sub-stance abuse.

Formerly homeless tenants qualify forrent subsidies through the Shelter PlusCare System, a U.S. Department of

Housing and Urban Development–spon-sored program for persons living with disabilities. The remaining units areavailable to residents with incomes of upto 60 percent of the area median income.

The scattered-site development uses twotypes of architecture: larger buildings ofone-bedroom units on a busy four-laneroad; and a duplex, a quadruplex, and sixtriplexes that look like single-familyhomes on a quiet residential street.Aletheia House hired a design consultant,in addition to the architect, to ensurethat the design of the project was appro-priate and attractive to the existingneighborhood. The high-quality designhelped turn neighborhood opponents ofaffordable homes into advocates and hasdrawn the attention of private developersto the Avondale neighborhood.

Avondale Gardens used low-income taxcredits that were syndicated by theEnterprise Social Investment Corporation,debt provided by the Alabama Multi-family Loan Consortium and AmsouthBank, and grants from the City ofBirmingham and the Federal HomeLoan Bank of Atlanta. Aletheia Houseand its co-developer, the CharterCompanies of Auburn, Ala., also investeda percentage of their developer fees inthe project.

Building on the success of AvondaleGardens, Aletheia House hopes to spinoff a subsidiary to continue developinghomes that working families can afford.Through persistence and skilled leader-ship, Aletheia House has shown the wayto provide high-quality rental homes in a challenging environment.

A L E T H E I A H O U S E

Birmingham, Alabama

A V O N D A L E G A R D E N S

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F I F T E E N T H A N N I V E R S A R Y

Fannie Mae Foundat ion

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S P O N S O R I N G O R G A N I Z AT I O N

Aletheia House focuses on empoweringBirmingham’s poor, especially those whostruggle with addiction. Its programsinclude substance abuse treatment andprevention, employment and training,transitional and permanent homes, andtransportation.

Each year, Aletheia House gets morethan 5,000 calls from low-income indi-viduals seeking substance abuse treat-ment. It operates a 66-bed residentialsubstance abuse treatment program formen and a 32-bed treatment programfor women, including women who arepregnant or postpartum.

The organization is the Birminghamarea’s largest provider of transitionalhomes, with 175 units for individualsand 33 units for families. The employ-ment and training program offers jobreadiness training, job placement help,and job retention/promotion servicesfor recovering substance abusers and ex-prisoners.

F U N D I N G F O R

AV O N D A L E G A R D E N S

• Low-Income Housing Tax Credits syndicated by the Enterprise SocialInvestment Corporation

• Amsouth Bank construction funding

• Alabama Multifamily LoanConsortium debt

• City of Birmingham grant

• Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta grant

• Deferred developer fees

• Housing Enterprise of CentralAlabama permanent financing

A L E T H E I A H O U S E ’ S O T H E R

A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

• Aletheia House offers culinary artstraining for addicted homeless veter-ans and clerical training for motherswho have lost custody of their chil-dren because of drug addiction.

• The organization provides daily trans-portation for more than 150 low-income workers.

• Aletheia House runs a free summerday camp for children living in gov-ernment-subsidized homes that teachespositive alternatives to substance abuseand violence.

B O A R D L E A D E R S H I P

President: Rena Ramsey, Amsouth Bank

Immediate Past President: Victoria PooleMoore, health care consultant

Vice President: Chris Kramer, Brasfield &Gorrie Construction

Treasurer: Scott Colson, City ofBirmingham Office of the Mayor

Secretary: Hon. Quitman Mitchell, for-mer mayor of the City of Bessemer

S TA F F L E A D E R S H I P

Executive Director: Chris Retan

C O N TA C T I N F O R M AT I O N

Aletheia HouseP.O. Box 1514Birmingham, AL 35204Phone: (205) 324-6502Fax: (205) 324-7810E-mail: Chris_Retan@yahoo.com

A L E T H E I A H O U S E IN 1988, TO COMMEMORATE

FANNIE MAE’S 50TH ANNIVER-

SARY, the Fannie Mae Foundation

announced the Awards of Excellence

Program, which seeks to encourage

and recognize nonprofit organiza-

tions working to develop and

maintain housing for low-income

Americans. The program also is

intended to encourage more corpo-

rations and foundations to be

involved as funding and investment

partners. The Awards were renamed

in honor of David O. Maxwell, who

retired in 1991 after 10 years of

service as chairman and chief execu-

tive officer of Fannie Mae and the

Fannie Mae Foundation.

FOR THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE MAXWELL AWARDS

PROGRAM, the Foundation is

awarding $50,000 to each selected

nonprofit organization.

THE FANNIE MAE

FOUNDATION creates affordable

homeownership and housing

opportunities through innovative

partnerships and initiatives that build

healthy, vibrant communities across

the United States. The Foundation is

specially committed to improving the

quality of life for the people of its

hometown, Washington, D.C., and

to enhancing the livability of the

city’s neighborhoods. Headquartered

in Washington, D.C., the Foundation

is a private, nonprofit organization

whose sole source of support is

Fannie Mae, and has regional offices

in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas,

Pasadena, and Philadelphia.

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4000 Wisconsin Avenue, NWNorth Tower, Suite OneWashington, DC 20016-2804(202) 274-8000www.fanniemaefoundation.orgwww.knowledgeplex.org