PROVIDENCE  – Elected officials, community developers and residents gathered today to celebrate the grand opening of Riverside Gateway, a $6.8 million development of 31 new affordable apartments and two retail storefronts in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood. The ceremony, at Pelham and Aleppo streets, was also an occasion to salute U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy’s efforts to secure federal funding for community safety programs that have contributed to the resurgence of Olneyville and neighborhoods like it.

The Riverside Gateway apartments, developed by the nonprofit Olneyville Housing Corporation (OHC), represent the first of  a three-phase development that eventually will include an additional 20 affordable condominiums, 12 units of housing for artists, the rehab of three 1860s era worker cottages into seven affordable homes, and office space for neighborhood organizations.

U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy has been instrumental in securing federal funds to help CSI work with neighborhood organizations on crime issues in Rhode Island and nationwide. Since 1999, CSI has received $3.25 million in federal funds to help community partners select, coordinate, and implement their development initiatives and crime-control efforts to produce results - crime reduction that promotes development and development that promotes crime reduction. By the unconventional linking of innovative policing with economic development, police and developers aim to attract the kinds of social and financial investments that make communities safer and more vibrant.

“What’s happening here is an excellent example of community institutions working together,” said Representative Kennedy, who was on hand to present a $500,000 check to LISC’s CSI program. “Olneyville Housing, the Providence Police Department, the Parks Department, the Rhode Island attorney general, LISC and others all sat at the same table, addressed the same problems, and got the wheels turning on a development that will make Olneyville a stronger neighborhood. This type of progress doesn’t happen overnight and it’s a credit to these institutions, and the residents they serve, that we’re having this celebration today.”

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