When they hear the words “affordable housing,” many people think of “the projects” — some version of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green or other failed attempts at “urban renewal.”

But few think of Sweetbrier, the sharp-looking affordable-housing development being built in Barrington. That’s right — in Barrington, one of the least affordable communities in Rhode Island. Granted, it’s in West Barrington, not Rumstick Point. But you get the point.

The point, according to the 2009 Fact Book just issued by the HousingWorks RI coalition, is that one of the myths about affordable homes is that they are “substandard and unattractive and will negatively change the character of my neighborhood.”

In fact, HousingWorks says, “Requirements of the programs that finance the development of these homes ensure that affordable homes are well designed, attractively landscaped and constructed of quality, energy-efficient materials.” The group offered a challenge, of sorts, saying, “Just take a look at the pictures or a walk through the neighborhoods of affordable developments in Rhode Island.”

So on Monday, I put on a hard hat and plodded through mud to look at Sweetbrier, where 47 rental units and 3 single-family houses are being built on Washington Road. (For true Rhode Islanders, who go by landmarks that no longer exist, this is the site of the former West Barrington Elementary School.)

It looks great. The two-story duplexes have porches. They are painted in tasteful shades of green and blue. While some “projects” offer a little taste of downtown Leningrad, this development has a New England townhouse style that fits right in.

The first tenants are expected to move in on Aug. 1. Sweetbrier tenants must fall within certain income ranges. For example, a family of four with annual income of no more than $36,600 would pay $652 a month for a three-bedroom unit, and a family of four with income of no more than $43,920 would pay $833 a month. By comparison, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Barrington market is $1,310.

Scott Charpentier, project manager for the East Bay Community Development Corporation, showed me around, saying that the future tenants will include a police officer, a bank teller and a dental hygienist. “There are no lawyers,” he said. “Just regular people who are trying to make a living.”

I’ll leave it to you to decide if the lack of lawyers is a plus or a minus. But seeing the end result, it’s hard to comprehend why the town had lawyers fight this thing so hard and for so long. The legal battle went all the way to the state Supreme Court, and in 2006, now-Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell wrote an opinion that cleared the way for the development.

State law requires at least 10 percent of each community’s housing to meet the definition of affordable. At 1.5 percent, Barrington is 518 units short. Sweetbrier will help. But like many other towns, Barrington has a long way to go.

Kathleen D. Bazinet, executive director of the East Bay Community Development Corporation, emphasized that affordable housing is a key component of economic development, saying she prefers the term “workforce housing.”

Nellie M. Gorbea, executive director of HousingWorks RI, said the coalition is “trying to break through the stereotypes about affordable housing.” She said the quality of Sweetbrier is not the exception — it has become the rule in affordable housing developments. In short, she said, “This is quality housing being built throughout the state that working people can afford.”

efitzpat@projo.com