Sellersville is a small rural community with an industrial past. The town of 4,500 is an active, revitalized community, north of Philadelphia, with a healthy mix of shops and restaurants, small businesses and cultural amenities, along with an attractive residential area for those working in the surrounding urban centers. According to Dan McKee, President and CEO of Grace Inspired Ministries (GIM), Sellersville is also "an area with a growing cost of living and a very limited supply of high-quality, cost-effective rental housing for seniors and people with cognitive differences.”
As a regional bank operating for more than 120 years, S&T Bank knows the financial needs of the community well. Recognizing the lack of affordable senior living developments, S&T Bank, a member of FHLBank Pittsburgh (FHLBank), applied for an Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant. Together with GIM, which runs two life plan communities, S&T Bank partnered with affordable housing developer Leon N. Weiner & Associates (LNWA), and others, on this community project.
Finding the right mix of funding is critical for the success of any affordable housing project. LNWA Development Coordinator Beau Jones explains, “Affordable housing projects are not like market-rate projects where you can easily find equity. Rents are not the same as market-rate housing, so you have to find funding that will enable affordable rents.” For the $17.1 million Sellersville Senior Residences, that mix of funding included Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and a low-interest mortgage from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; Bucks County community reinvestment capital, including financing from the county’s redevelopment authority; and a $405,000 AHP grant from FHLBank. In addition to its participation in obtaining the project’s AHP grant, S&T Bank provided a competitively priced construction loan.
In 2018, as ongoing preparations were being made, GIM acquired the property – an abandoned parking lot identified as a brownfield – and in partnership with LNWA, began the pre-construction work.
Sellersville Senior Residences is now an affordable and supportive housing community with 50 apartments: 42 one-bedroom units for residents aged 55 and older, and eight two-bedroom units for adults of all ages with behavioral health needs. All the apartments are Americans with Disabilities Act adaptable and built to the highest energy efficiency standards defined by the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home program. Rents are based on household income and affordable to households with incomes ranging from 20% to 60% of area median income.
Underscoring the area’s need for affordable senior housing, the apartments were fully leased after only 60 days of their initial availability in April 2022, and the waitlist currently extends past three years. “Projects like Sellersville Senior Residences not only serve as affordable homes for seniors, but also an innovative way to bring residents and stakeholders together in ways that foster community, trust and friendships,” said John Bendel, Senior Director of Community Investment, FHLBank.
Reflecting on the project’s success, Jones said, “There is always a need for gap financing in our industry, and it’s always difficult to find. FHLBank works hard to find ways to fill the gap and to make a project work. Both FHLBank and S&T Bank were great to work with and very supportive of this project.”
