Alliance For Better Housing

The Alliance for Better Housing was incorporated in 1994 as a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization by a group of concerned residents who saw a need for affordable housing for low-income residents in the southern part of Chester County PA. Many of ABH’s board members had already become involved in issues affecting farmworkers and other lower-income residents of Kennett Square and the surrounding area as a result of their involvement in La Comunidad Hispana, Inc., another local nonprofit human services organization addressing the particular needs of farmworkers living in the area. They believed that the severe shortage of affordable housing for farmworkers and other lower-income residents could best be addressed by establishing a new organization with the ability to act as an affordable housing developer and provider of housing related services.

ABH was established as a community development corporation. It became certified by the Chester County Department of Community Development in 1994 as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO). ABH brought on its first Executive Director shortly thereafter and began to acquire its first properties for rehabilitation and rental. In 1996 it began work on its first homeownership development project, Buena Vista Townhomes, which was completed in 1999.