Baystate Medical Center, based in Springfield announced earlier this month that it had made a $500,000 investment in Revitalize CDC and HAP Housing in Springfield to support their efforts to improve community health through improved housing and community development activities.  The three-year investment marks the largest CITC investment ever made by a health care institution and represents a groundbreaking milestone in the growing convergence between the community development and public health fields.

Revitalize CDC will receive $250,000 to support a three-year effort to improve housing conditions for children with asthma and to make home improvements that allow seniors to safely remain in their home.  The project will leverage Revitalize CDC’s remarkable volunteer network, enabling these home improvements to be done with high quality and low cost.

HAP Housing will also receive $250,000 to support a three-year effort to improve health in the Old Hill Neighborhood of Springfield.  These improvements will be achieved through a combination of physical improvements to parks, sidewalks, and bikeways as well as healthy lifestyle programming designed to activate the newly improved areas and advocacy to help local residents advocate for these and other health maximizing improvements in the neighborhood such as a new food store.

The investments are part of Baystate’s Better Together grant program. Baystate is able to utilize the CITC even though it is a not-for-profit without any tax liability because the CITC is refundable.  Therefore, Baystate has already announced that it will use their $250,000 CITC ”refund” to support additional community health programming in the coming years.

MACDC President Joseph Kriesberg spoke at the grant announcement and remarked that “this is a groundbreaking announcement that demonstrates the power of the CITC program to leverage new private investments.  I am so excited to see Baystate lead the way in using CITC to leverage the power of community development for improved health outcomes.  I can’t wait to tell health care institutions across the state about what is happening here in Springfield.  Congratulations.”

Learn more about Baystate's Community Health Needs Assessment 

More than $12.8 million in new private philanthropy was invested in high-impact, resident-led community development in 2014 and 2015 thanks to an innovative new state tax credit, according to a report released today by Next Street Financial.  The report is the first third-party evaluation conducted of the Massachusetts Community Investment Tax Credit, a program that was signed into law in 2012 and took effect in 2014.  The report was commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Boston.

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Executive Summary (PDF)

Report (PDF)

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The Community Investment Tax Credit is a 50% refundable state tax credit allocated to state-certified Community Development Corporations (CDCs) that were selected by DHCD through a competitive process to participate in the program to increase and diversify their philanthropic support. Thirty-six CDCs were selected in the program’s first year (2014) and another 14 were added in 2015.  Over the first two years of the program, the CITC attracted over 2,500 donations and $12.85 million.  The program successfully attracted 1,316 new donors to the field, including individuals, businesses, foundations and nonprofit institutions, with donations ranging from $1,000 to $500,000.  Over $5 million came from individuals – a new source of funding for many CDCs who have traditionally relied on foundations, corporations, government contracts and earned revenue.  The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley was designated as the state’s Community Partnership Fund and raised over $2.4 million for the program over those two years – nearly 1/6 of all the money generated.

“This new flexible private funding is empowering CDCs to lift their efforts to the next level,” said Joseph Kriesberg, President of the Massachusetts Association of CDCs.  “The report found that CDCs are investing these resources in community organizing, housing development, economic development, financial education and organizational capacity – all toward the goal of enabling residents to build a positive future for their families and their neighborhoods.”

In addition to the fundraising strength of the Community Investment Tax Credit, CDCs are achieving many of the program’s goals, such as deepening their organizations’ involvement in their neighborhoods and towns with new community organizing capacity and increased board engagement.  CDCs are also expanding and taking on new programs in the arts, small business assistance, health and financial counseling.  Finally, the CITC is spurring CDCs to establish new relationships with businesses, organizations and hundreds of individuals and families who may not have been aware of the CDC itself or its impact within their community.

“As a national organization with a strong local presence in Boston, we can tell you that the CITC is one of the most exciting new tools in the country for driving positive community change,” said Bob Van Meter, Executive Director of the LISC Boston office. “This tax credit is driving resources to the most effective community development groups and gives them the flexibility to design strategies and programs that are specifically tailored to the local context.  That’s incredibly valuable and unique.”

The Community Investment Tax Credit is contributing to the overall strength and substantial impact MACDC’s members are having across the Commonwealth.  In 2014 and 2015 alone, MACDC’s members invested over $1.4 billion in local communities, created or preserved 12,841 jobs, and produced or preserved 3,514 homes.  As the program continues to grow, more families will be supported, more jobs will be created and more homes will be built.

The CITC program is currently authorized through calendar year 2019, with up to $6 million in credits, representing $12 million in fundraising potential, available each year.  Donations must be between $1,000 and $2 million to qualify for the tax credit.  Many donors are also able to secure federal tax benefits for their donations.  Program advocates plan to seek legislation that will extend the program beyond 2019 and increase the credit cap in the years to come.

From September through October of this year, MACDC staff met with board, staff and community members of 15 CDCs from around the state to identify priority issues for our 2017-2018 
legislative/policy agenda. 

We also received input from the Western Mass. and Real Estate 
Development and Organizers’ peer groups, surveyed the 
membership and had a number of conversations with allies at 
CHAPA, LISC, Smart Growth Alliance and MAHA. 

Our Policy Committee reviewed all of this input and made its 
recommendation to the board, which approved the following 
advocacy priorities:

•    Passage of Housing Bond Bill 
•    Extending the CITC beyond the 2019 sunset
•    Restoring funding for the Small Business Technical 
    Assistance Program to $2 million 

We will, over the course of the next legislative session, work on 
other important issues as they arise.

You could feel the burst of joy, appreciation, and excitement spread throughout the room when First Lady Michelle Obama presented us with one of the 2016 National Arts & Humanities Youth Program (NAHYP) Awards. Many gathered for our live viewing party to celebrate all of the hard work of our staff, students, and community that has made our Youth Development Program (YDP) such a success.

The National Arts and Humanities Youth Award recognizes 12 outstanding programs from across the country. It is the Nation’s highest honor “for out-of-school arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America’s young people, particularly those from underserved communities.” As an awardee, we will receive a $10,000 grant as well as “a full year of capacity-building and communications support;” allowing us to further strengthen our mission – to empower and engage individuals and families to improve their lives through high-quality affordable housing, education, and arts programs – by continuing to provide a unique opportunity that prepares young people for their futures.

Our YDP students come to us from communities all over Boston, including the South End, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan with the drive to develop their leadership abilities, confidence, positive relationships, and job skills. We provide these youth participants with a platform to grow by opening high-quality arts & humanities learning experiences to them.

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MOTIVATED THREATS, HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE

BOSTON – Following reports of harassment and intimidation of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women, LGBTQ individuals and immigrants since Election Day, Attorney General Maura Healey today announced that her office has established a new hotline for Massachusetts residents to report such incidents.

“In Massachusetts, we will protect people’s rights, fight discrimination and keep people safe,” said AG Healey. “There are reports from around the country following the election that people have been targeted and subjected to conduct that imperils safety and civil rights. Today, I am establishing a hotline for residents to report bias-motivated threats, harassment, and violence. Such conduct has no place in Massachusetts.”

The hotline will be managed by attorneys and staff in the AG’s Office. While not every incident will be appropriate for legal action, the AG’s Office will be tracking reports and appropriate matters may be referred to local law enforcement or the Attorney General’s Criminal Bureau.

Any Massachusetts resident who has witnessed or experienced bias-motivated threats, harassment or violence may call the Attorney General’s Hotline at 1-800-994-3228 or fill out a civil rights complaint form at this link. Residents may also contact the AG’s Office through its social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

Potential hate crimes – including bias-motivated assault, battery, and property damage – should also be reported to the local police in the first instance. Residents who fear for their immediate safety should call 911. 

Most hate crimes are prosecuted by the local District Attorney’s Office. However, in some cases, the offender may also be prosecuted civilly, either in addition to criminal charges or instead of criminal charges, by the AG’s Office under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (MCRA).

The MCRA protects the rights of all residents and visitors to Massachusetts to be free from bias-motivated threats, intimidation, and coercion. The MCRA protects the right to use public parks and transportation, walk on public streets, attend school, live peacefully, and enjoy other basic rights. Under the MCRA, the Attorney General may bring legal action against a perpetrator who threatens, intimidates, or coerces another person on the basis of that person’s membership in a protected group (e.g., race, national origin, religion, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability) or protected activity (e.g., exercising the right to vote or the right to associate).

Whether it’s potential hate crimes, housing discrimination, or wage theft, the AG’s Office encourages immigrant communities to come forward with their concerns without fear of reprisal based on immigration status.

For more information, visit the Attorney General’s Office website.

“Too many Community Development Corporations have abandoned their roots and don’t empower local residents,” said one Community Development Corporation (CDC) leader, noting that the professionals on staff were driving the agenda, not residents. “That’s unfair” said another, who added, “we have to attract investments from banks and work with City Hall to get things done.” This was the summer of 1993, at my very first MACDC board meeting. This particular debate–and various versions of it–has animated community development for the past 25 years. As our movement’s founding father, Mel King, often asks: “in whose interest” are we working? Having just graduated from law school and starting a career in community development, I wondered what precisely I had walked into.

The debate manifests itself around three related but distinct tensions faced by CDCs across the country:

• Should we focus our efforts on places or on people?
• Should we adopt a comprehensive approach or specialize in a single area to achieve greater scale and impact?
• How do we balance power between professional community developers and resident leaders?

Continue Reading on the Living Cities website...

By a resounding margin of 73.6% to 26.4%, Boston voters approved the Community Preservation Act to enable the City to raise $20 million dollars annually for affordable housing, parks and open space and historic preservation.  MACDC and its members played an active role in every aspect of the campaign along with over 200 community oganizations, representing housing, parks, historic preservation, arts & culture, health, faith institutions, labor and business. The proposal – Question 5 on the ballot – was also strongly support by Mayor Marty Walsh and nearly all of our city’s couniclors and state legislators.

The CPA was first established by the state legislature in 2000 as a way for cities and towns to address the needs for more housing, parks and historic preservation.  Since that time, 161 cities and towns have voted to adopt CPA for their communities. Yesterday, Boston was joined by Chelsea, Springfield, Holyoke and Pittsfield in adopting CPA creating new opportunities to improve neighborhoods across the state.

For more information on the Boston CPA campaign, go to Yes for a Better Boston’s website.

MassHousing has announced significant enhancements to the Get the Lead Out Program (GTLO).   GTLO provides low-cost financing to owners of 1-4 family properties to remove lead paint from their homes and reduce the possibilities of lead poisoning in children.   These enhancements will make it easier for all families throughout the Commonwealth to gain access to GTLO funds.  Removing certain obstacles will also allow additional Lenders and Local Rehab Agencies to participate in the program. CLICK HERE for MassHousing memo (PDF)

Owner-occupant families with children residing in the property under the age of six, or under court order to delead their homes, will continue to be able to access 0% “deferred loans”, with repayment not due until the home is sold, transferred or refinanced.  One big change is that all income-eligible owner occupants will now also be able to access 0% deferred loans, instead of loans at 2% requiring regular repayment.  This preventative approach will result in the deleading of units that will be the future homes of families with children.  There are other helpful changes, that will lower upfront payments required of borrowers and broaden the lenders and local agencies participating in the program.

MACDC and its Members, along with our allies at CHAPA, MAHA, and the MA Public Health Association played a crucial role in advocating for changes.  We appreciate that MassHousing, the MA Department of Housing and Community Development, and the MA Department of Public Health were open and receptive to our recommendations.  Because of this, a good program is now even better, which will result in more homes becoming lead free and fewer children becoming lead poisoned.   Despite substantial gains made over 45 years of public health intervention, lead exposure remains a significant health risk for children in Massachusetts. Recent evidence suggests that for children there is no safe level of exposure to lead and that exposure to relatively low levels can result in irreversible health effects.  Fewer homes with lead means fewer sick children, plain and simple.

The enhancements to the Get the Lead Out Program will be effective for all loans reserved by MassHousing on or after October 25, 2016.  The next step will be for MassHousing to hold 5 Regional informational sessions across the state.  The locations will be North Shore, South Shore, Boston, Central/Worcester and Western MA. MACDC will work with MassHousing to plan and put the word out about these upcoming sessions.

Should you have any questions, please contact Deanna Ramsden at MassHousing at 617-854-1822 or dramsden@masshousing.com for assistance.

The year was 1986.  I’ll never forget it.

Many things happened that year but two have influenced my life forever.  The was the death of my mother.  And the second was that LIHTC became law.

At the time, these two events had absolutely no connection.  I didn’t even know what the LIHTC was back in 1986.  But unbeknownst to me in the mid-80s, the program would inadvertently play a major role in my life.

My mother’s death market yet another period of instability in my life by putting my housing situation in jeopardy.  I never lived in a tax credit subsidized unit, but my situational housing issues helped me understand just how critical housing stability is.  Housing instability impacts life beyond finances.  Worrying about it can consume you and leave little room to think beyond where you’re going to sleep that night.

That experience began my interest and passion in urban planning and community development.  Along that path I somehow ended up at MIT.  And a major part of my education was working at The Community Builders.  That’s where I learned about the pivotal role the LIHTC played in providing neighborhood and family stability.  I was incredibly fortunate to learn the trade in the presence of geniuses who were living examples of how to apply talent and passion to creating good for everyone.  People like Willie Jones, Judy Weber and Swan Oey become my heroes and taught me so much about this great work we all do.

The I got the honor of learning firsthand the impact of the LIHTC working at Urban Edge with Mossik Hacobian.  Working at the community level, I was inspired and humbled by families in properties that were supported by the LIHTC.  These folks worked, raised families and made their neighborhoods better places.  This experience is what taught me the power and true purpose of the LIHTC.

And then the Governor blew me away by asking to help him create and implement an agenda based on the work I had spent the past 20 years doing.  What a privilege it is to run the program in my current role as Undersecretary of DHCD, and to have joined a small but impactful group of agency leaders from Amy Anthony to Aaron Gornstein.  And to do it alongside one of the nation’s most uncompromising stewards of the program, Kate Racer.

The LIHTC program has not only provided stability to millions of Americans across our country, but it has created a community.  And in Massachusetts, this community is small but mighty as is evidenced today.  Let’s never forget the folks we are here to serve but let’s not overlook the value in serving together.

On behalf of the Baker Polito Administration, we thank you for all you do and for continuing to allow us to be part of this beloved community.

MACDC staff and members joined with hundreds of colleagues to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program at an event hosted by the Department of Housing and Community Development on October 21.  The event featured remarks from Secretary Jay Ash, Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay,  and the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Housing, Senator Linda Dorcena Forry and Rep. Kevin Honan.  All of the speakers celebrated the collaboration, commitment and talent of affordable housing professionals and community leaders who have enabled the Commonwealth to build or preserve 58,855 affordable rental homes across the state over the past 30 years.

The event also featured interesting and thought provoking remarks by David Smith of the Affordable Housing Institute who talked about why the LIHTC is such a powerful tool – and the largest federal affordable housing program ever. He also pointed out that the program does not currently meet all of our housing needs and that new creativity and tools are needed to address the full range of housing challenges we face.  David Gasson from Boston Capital talked about the improving prospects of Congress passing the Hatch/Cantwell bill that would expand the LIHTC by 50% over five years and allow developers to serve a broader range of incomes.  He also noted that the success of the LIHTC depends on also increasing funding for rental subsidies and the HOME program, as well as local and state subsidies that are needed to fill financing gaps and fully leverage the tax credits.

Throughout the celebration, there was a recognition that for many of us in the room, affordable housing is both a personal and professional passion.  Perhaps no one made that point more powerfully than Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay who shared some reflections in this short statement.  

MACDC wishes to congratulate DHCD and our many friends, colleagues and partners for using the LIHTC to create better homes and neighborhoods for so many of our neighbors.