Turtle Creek former school converted into 26 affordable apartments for youth leaving foster care

A long-closed former Catholic grade school in Turtle Creek has been converted into 26 affordable apartments for young people aging out of foster care.

The Calvin Anderson Schoolhouse Apartments at St. Colman were redeveloped by the Allegheny County Housing Authority. Officials and community members marked the completed project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 22, 2026.

From schoolhouse to apartments

The development repurposed the former Calvin Anderson Schoolhouse, bringing a vacant institutional building back into community use. The project contains 26 affordable apartments designated for young people leaving the foster-care system and transitioning to independent housing.

That transition can carry a high risk of housing instability. The new apartments provide homes for a specific group of young residents who may otherwise face difficulty finding stable, affordable housing after aging out of foster care.

Converting an old school into housing required the Housing Authority to redevelop a building that had been closed for a long period. Former schools can be costly and challenging to convert, particularly when they have remained unused, making the Turtle Creek project both a housing development and an adaptive reuse of an existing structure.

Four years of work and $5 million in funding

Allegheny County provided $2.4 million for the redevelopment, while the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency provided $2.6 million in pandemic relief funds. Together, those identified contributions total $5 million.

Housing Authority Executive Director Richard Stephenson said the project took about four years to complete. The timeline reflects the scale of converting the former schoolhouse into residential apartments rather than simply opening an already suitable housing property.

The funding supported the transformation of the schoolhouse at St. Colman in Turtle Creek Borough. The completed apartments carry the Calvin Anderson Schoolhouse name, preserving the connection to the former school while giving the building a new residential purpose.

The June 22 ribbon-cutting introduced the finished development to the community. Its immediate result is 26 affordable homes in Turtle Creek for young people aging out of foster care, along with the reuse of a long-closed local school building.