The Alameda Housing Authority (AHA) invites the community to tour four of its properties in celebration of Affordable Housing Week. These include: Shinsei Gardens at 401 Willie Stargell Ave., Stargell Commons at 2700 Bette St., Esperanza at 223 Brush St. and Anne B. Diament Plaza at 920 Park St. 

The facilities will be open to the public from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 15. AHA is hosting the open houses to help celebrate Affordable Housing Week, which runs from May 11 to May 18. No RSVP is necessary to attend. Parking is not available on-site. Guests are encouraged to consider taking public transportation or, perhaps, walking or bicycling.  

This open house is an opportunity to visit only. AHA wait-lists remain closed and no other housing opportunities are available at this time. Affordable Housing Week is being celebrated nationwide. For a listing of other events nearby log onto the East Bay Housing Organization’s Affordable Housing Week website at www.ebho.org. 

In the meantime, construction continues at Littlejohn Commons at Buena Vista Avenue and Sherman Street as the project gets closer to completion. Water and sewer utility work, as well as paving are complete there. Unit interiors are nearly finished, while work continues on the building’s exterior, as well as the electric utility service, which should be complete by the end of May. AHA now expects the project to be ready for its first tenants in July. 

As with the city’s other facilities, wait lists for the units at Littlejohn Commons are closed. Residents already on the waiting list and may check their status by calling John Stewart Co. at (415) 608-5717. 

At Alameda Point, the city has transferred 30 acres of the 68-acre Site A parcel to Alameda Point Partners (“Site A Construction Poised to Begin,” March 8). This joint venture includes Trammell Crow Residential, srmERNST Development Partners, Madison Marquette, Eden Housing and financial partner Cypress Equity Investments. 

“The land transfer immediately provides $14 million in funding for the projects that matter most,” stated Jennifer Ott, Director of Base Reuse and Transportation. These include affordable housing and new transportation improvements.

In the mix among the 673 housing units planned for Site A are 130-units of affordable housing for low- and very-low income households.  Construction of major infrastructure to pave the way for this housing includes water, sewer, electrical and gas lines, as well as newly paved streets with bike and transit lanes. 

Planned improvements should set the stage to rebuild supportive housing for Alameda Point Collaborative, Building Futures for Women and Children and Operation Dignity. Formerly homeless residents currently call deteriorating Navy housing home.