A partnership between State College Borough, the State College Community Land Trust and The HOME Foundation marked the completion of two new affordable, energy-efficient rental apartments with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at 821 Old Boalsburg Road.
The project, known as the Old Boalsburg Road Flats, includes a two-unit building with an ADA-accessible one-bedroom apartment on the first floor and a one-bedroom unit above. The development was redesigned from a small single-family home after a housing assessment identified a shortage of accessible and affordable one-bedroom rentals in the borough and Centre County.
The Old Boalsburg Road Flats will be rented by The HOME Foundation to income-qualified households earning at or below 50% of area median income, with occupancy expected in early 2026. Because the land is held in trust by the State College Community Land Trust, the homes will remain permanently affordable.
It’s the second affordable housing project developed by the land trust and The Home Foundation on the same block of Old Boalsburg Road, building on an earlier partnership that rehabilitated eight nearby affordable townhomes that have been fully occupied since 2023.
“When we first started to look at this property, there was a very interesting thing about it,” Morgan Wasikonis, executive director of The HOME Foundation, said. “It had a land use plan already for this space, and it was suggested the previous owners would build a single-family home on it. And we didn’t think that was maybe the best use for this plot of land. So once we got the townhomes renovated and ready to be occupied, we decided maybe we’d take a look at this plot of land again.”
Wasikonis said the collaboration began around 2019 and required securing funding from multiple sources to acquire the land and buildings.
For the smaller plot where the two new units are located, the project team ultimately decided to maximize the site to address a shortage of one-bedroom apartments, particularly those that are affordable and accessible.
“What we realized is that one of the driving factors was studies that indicated that we really have a shortage of one-bedroom apartments in Centre County and definitely in the borough, and certainly affordable ones and definitely ones that are accessible,” Wasikonis said. “So we thought we would do an ADA-accessible unit on the first floor and then build a regular one-bedroom on the second floor.”
Wasikonis also emphasized a commitment to sustainability and long-term affordability. Like the townhomes, the new apartments incorporate energy-efficient features designed to reduce utility costs for tenants.
“One of the things that we prioritize is making sure that the homes that we work on are energy efficient and have low energy usage and low energy costs to be able to live in them,” she said.
State College, meanwhile, has supported the partnership between The HOME Foundation and the State College Community Land Trust for more than 25 years, Borough Council member Matt Herndon said.
“In just the past seven years, the borough has helped this partnership to develop 12 permanently affordable apartments…,” Herndon said. “We have invested over $1 million in these 12 apartments and helped to secure almost another million dollars in federal grant money for them as well.”
Those funds, he said, largely come from the borough’s inclusionary housing ordinance, which requires developers to include affordable units or pay a fee in lieu.
“Those fees are what have allowed us to fund projects like the one you see before you today,” Herndon said.
Affordable housing is critically needed, he added, noting that the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the borough is about $1,250 per month.
“A person would need an annual income of at least $50,000 in order to pay this rent without exceeding the housing cost burden of 30% of their income,” Herndon said. “Without affordable housing here, we are pushing these people out, creating long commutes that increase traffic and pollution.”
The project was also supported by funding from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program allocated by Centre County.
County Commissioner Steve Dershem said the building reflects long-term planning and responsible land use.
“This is top shelf and it’s state-of-the-art construction,” he said. “I think it represents a pretty good investment, not only for the folks today, but probably 50, 60, 70, maybe 100 years from now, this building will still be standing and still be very useful…I think the footprint of this property demonstrates one of the next generation of thinking about how we’re going to be able to do things and move ahead.”
The project is intended to serve as a model for sustainable and permanently affordable housing while acknowledging broader housing concerns in the community, said Ben Wideman, president of the State College Community Land Trust board.
“This is an incredible project, one that we hope will be a beacon of sustainability and permanently affordable housing,” Wideman said. “We’re living through a time that is an anxious one, anxious about things like affordable housing, embodying and continuing the spirit that has already been talked about through this collaborative effort here in our Borough.
“…We do need to pause and say we’re living through a time that is an anxious one, anxious about the state of our world, anxious about things like affordable housing. Just this week, we learned about the potential sale of the Addison Court building, which provides affordable housing to seniors in our community, bringing anxiety and fear to an already vulnerable population.”
