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Joe's Summer Sabbatical

September 9th, 2019 by Joe Kriesberg

Thanks to the generosity and support of the MACDC board and staff, I was able to take a two-month summer sabbatical this year – my first full summer vacation in a very long time.  I was able to spend lots of time with various family members, read books, travel, and enjoy countless hours of biking, swimming and hiking!  For those wondering “what did you do all summer” I figured that I would share some of the highlights.

Syracuse - The sabbatical started with a 4-day trip to Syracuse to see my dad.  My wife Dina and I picked up our son Mike in Albany and drove to Syracuse to hang with my dad and his partner.  On the way back to Boston, we packed up Mike’s apartment in Albany (he had just quit his job) and brought him home to continue his search for a job in New York City.

Backpacking - After celebrating the 4th of July in Boston (including attending the Rolling Stones Concert at Gillette Stadium!), I flew to Idaho to meet up with my brother for a backpacking trip in the White Clouds & Saw Tooth Mountain area.  The scenery was incredible; it was great to hang out with my brother; the hiking was challenging but not exhausting; and I was able to sleep (sort of) on the ground in my tiny tent!

Boston - I then had 11 days in Boston with no travel.  This was certainly the longest “stay-cation” of my life but I was able to get into a routine of biking, swimming, reading, visiting with a few friends and helping my son with his job search (mostly nagging).

My Dad's Birthday - In late July, my family and my brother’s family met up with my dad and his partner in Beacon, NY (the Hudson Valley region) to spend a weekend celebrating his 93rd birthday by going to not one, but two art museums (he loves art!)   It was great for him to catch up with all four of his grandchildren and for the cousins to reconnect for the first time in many months.  His quote of the day: “Birthdays are fun – I should have more of them!”   I agree!

Cape Cod - Dina and I finally were able to take our own vacation on Cape Cod in early August (she was NOT on sabbatical after all!). We were unable to go last year so it was great to be back on the beaches where we only had two shark alerts!  My Dad and Paula spent a couple of days with us (yes, our third visit of the summer!) and then Mike made a surprise visit as well to tell us that he had accepted a job offer from the New Israel Fund in New York City!

Reading books – not memos - After the Cape, we came back to Boston for a few more days of hanging around.  I was able to make progress on my goal of reading more books than I usually do.  Over the course of the summer, I was able to read: Washington Black, the Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street), The Bluest Eye, Evicted, Just Mercy, and Say Nothing.  I enjoyed some good podcasts (check out Crimetown to learn about the mob in Providence) and TV shows (City on a Hill; Six Feet Under) and watched a fair number of Red Sox games (although not as many as I would have thought)  Of course, none of this interfered with biking or swimming (or both) virtually every day I was in town.  I don’t think I swam so much during the summer since I worked as a lifeguard in 1984!

Glacier National Park - My next adventure was to go to Montana with my sons Mike and Josh.  We started our trip in Kalispel where we attended our first ever Rodeo.  The scene was exactly what you might imagine with lots of families, women wearing awesome boots and men wearing their cowboy hats.  There was much pageantry, including honoring our military and recognizing Native American heritage and culture. The competition was either incredible or awful, depending on your view of Rodeos, but it was definitely a great opportunity to experience a different piece of American culture.  My kids loved it.  We then spent four days hiking in Glacier National Park.  We saw amazing scenery, lots of wildlife (including a Wolverine!) and walked along and over the Continental Divide. Spending four days hiking with my kids was a great way to spend time together (no cell phone service!), create memories and share new experiences.  My son called the trip “magical” and it was.

Seattle - The three of us then drove to Seattle and they got to see for the first time how expansive and empty the American West can be. In Seattle, we met up with Dina and most of her family so we could celebrate her sister’s 60th birthday. 

My Sabbatical Buddy - One special treat this summer was spending time with my 23-year-old son Mike.  As noted, he quit his job on the same day that my sabbatical began and he began his new job with the New Israel Fund on the same day that I returned to work so we were both home and “unemployed” for the same 9 weeks!  He has been in Albany for the past five years so we have not had nearly so much time to hang out and honestly, we will probably never have a summer like this again. We talked, we played basketball, we ate, we cooked (Dina loved coming home to our (mostly his) meals!), we worked on his job search and then his apartment search.  Dina says he was my “sabbatical buddy”!  It was bittersweet to drive him to New York City on Labor Day weekend and help him set up his new apartment in Astoria, Queens.  I am proud that he had the courage to quit a job he disliked, to pursue something that he really cares about (peace and democracy in Israel) and to take on the adventure of living in New York. But I’m really going to miss having him around. 

If you are wondering whether I really avoided work during the sabbatical, the answer is “mostly”.  While I contacted the staff on one or two occasions early on, I did not talk/email/text with any staff for the last five or six weeks. Yes, I occasionally checked my email, but I did not respond to them and very much enjoyed reading an email and saying to myself “I don’t have to deal with that!”  Overall, I’ve been pretty checked out and was able to enjoy my summer without thinking about work very much.

None of this would have been possible if MACDC did not have such a terrific and dedicated staff. I want to especially thank Shirronda Almeida for serving as interim executive director and to everyone on the staff who picked up my workload over the summer.  I think it was a great learning opportunity for them and the experience will make our organization stronger, more stable and better prepared for the future.

I am eager to get back to work (starting with those emails and memos that are waiting for me) and I am excited about our agenda for this fall.  But if you catch me day dreaming at a meeting, you can probably guess that I’ll be reliving my summer memories!

Defining Health Equity: “I know it when I see it”

August 27th, 2019 by Elana Brochin

In the five months since I started at MACDC as the Program Director for Health Equity, I have struggled to define the key term imbedded in my title: “health equity.” Rather than using a single definition for this important term, I have found that the term is better described through examples, in other words, I know it when I see it.  

“I know it when I see it” is a concept popularized by the former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 when he described the concept as the threshold test for obscenity regarding protected speech. In the same way that “obscenity” has variable definitions yet is recognized when it exists, health equity is better defined by examples than by a static definition.  

Health equity is the opening of a grocery store to increase access to healthy, affordable food to low- and moderate-income residents who have disproportionate rates of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Health equity is advocating for increased state funding for no-interest lead abatement loans for low- and moderate-income homeowners and landlords. Health equity is providing transportation services for isolated seniors to access health care services and health-promoting activities. But despite having a clear sense of examples of initiatives that fall into the health equity bucket, it is often advantageous to have a succinct definition for health equity for shorter conversations. 

MACDC has not formally adopted a definition for health equity, and so, in order to better articulate what I do, I recently did some research into how other organizations define the term. The following are several definitions of health equity, followed by my initial reactions: 

The World Health Organization (WHO) 

Definition: Equity is the absence of avoidable, unfair, or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically, or by other means of stratification. "Health equity” or “equity in health” implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential and that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential. 

My reaction: I like that this definition begins by defining “equity” and then gets more specific in defining what we mean by health equity. The WHO leaves me wanting more detail about the systems and causes of inequity. 

Center for Disease Control (the other CDC)  

Definition: Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.” Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment. 

My reaction: I really like that this definition enumerates how health inequity manifests. This definition made me appreciate an aspect of the WHO definition, which the CDC definition lacks: the WHO names social, economic, demographic, and geographic as ways in which people might be subject to varying health outcomes. 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) 

Definition: Everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care. 

My reaction: I really like that RWJF names the social determinants of health that cause health inequity. I have mixed feelings about the first sentence in their definition, which on one hand, describes the desired outcome (“everyone….to be as healthy as possible”), on the other, doesn’t define what we mean by good health.  

American Public Health Association  

Definition: Everyone has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. 

My reaction: Wow, this is an even more simplified version than the first sentence of the RWJF definition! I like that the definition is straight-forward, but also am concerned that its simplicity renders makes it less useful than the other definitions. 

I was curious to analyze these definitions together to better understand what they have in common. I started by creating a word bubble: 

To better understand the word bubble, I noted the words that appeared the biggest – meaning that they appeared most frequently. I came up with the following words: everyone, attain, fair, potential, opportunity. These five words seem to be moving toward a consensus definition – in fact, they almost make a sentence. But something is notably missing – there are no words that are specific to health! In fact, the words in this word bubble that are most directly tied to health, consistently appear the smallest. These words include disease, death, care, treatment, disability and almost entirely stem from the CDC definition. 

 

My analysis of the word bubble indicates that the definitions cited are in better agreement about how to define “equity” than they are about how to define “health.” I have a few theories as to why: 

 

One theory is that the definitions assume that we know what health is, but assume we need help defining equity.  

 

Conversely another theory is that health is just too difficult to define in the context of a succinct definition.  

 

The most compelling explanation for the absence of health-specific terms in these definitions is that differences in health status or health opportunities stem from the same inequities from which all unequal outcomes stem. Therefore, these definitions are more concerned with the cause (inequity) than the effect (health).  

 

I hope that instead of creating more confusion (which would be understandable), my analysis provides a bit of understanding of what health equity is. I think it helped me! Going forward, when someone asks me what I do, I’m going to go with something along the lines of: 

 

Health equity involves creating and supporting systems, environments, and policies that allow all individuals the potential to lead healthy lives. Health equity further involves dismantling systems, environments, and policies that have historically contributed to health disparities. When time allows, my explanation will undoubtedly be followed by a laundry list of examples of ways in which CDCs, and others, are actively working to promote health equity. I maintain that ultimately real-world examples will better explain health equity than any definition can. 

 

Do you or your organization have a go-to definition for health equity?  

The Mel King Institute’s Public Housing Training Program trains hundreds of residents across Massachusetts

August 26th, 2019 by Nadine Sanchara

PHTP particpants at a recent training in Ludlow.

“Before the (PHTP) training, I didn’t understand the way things work… The training is serious. I like to say it’s like an oracle, it gives answers.”

Those were the words of Nicole Beckles, a resident leader and peer trainer in the Public Housing Training Program. Nicole gave a moving testimonial of her participation in the program at the Mel King Institute’s 10th Anniversary Breakfast in June.

“Changes to public housing don’t affect where other people lay their heads at night, not the Housing Authority staff, or the legislators, the changes affect public housing residents, where we live every day and raise our kids. This is why this program of training residents to understand the process and giving and getting involved is so important. This is why I’m involved,” she continued.

Since its first training in 2017, the Public Housing Training Program (PHTP) has trained more than 200 residents across the Commonwealth, arming them with the knowledge they need to fully participate in the oversight of their housing developments. A recent evaluation report of the program showed that it is building resident leadership skills and knowledge in a variety of areas such as budgets, tenants’ rights, conflict resolution, community building, etc.

The Mel King Institute for Community Building launched the Public Housing Tenant Training Program in 2016 with the purpose of increasing the voice of residents as stakeholders in decision-making in public housing management and administration. Trainings are all conducted by Sarah Byrnes, Manager of the MKI Public Housing Training Program, along with co-trainers and residents.

Director of the Mel King Institute, Shirronda Almeida said, “We are proud to have this effort under the MKI umbrella. The program reaches residents in public housing across the state and gives them the tools necessary to be leaders within their housing authority.  When we hear from these residents, we learn about the powerful impact the training and networking opportunities is having in their lives, and communities.”

Though the Mel King Institute is based in Boston, trainings are conducted across Massachusetts. Recently, Sarah drove out to Western MA for a week of trainings. The week started in Great Barrington with a learning session with two resident board members, followed by two days of resident leader training, and concluded with a resident board member training in Ludlow.

The trainings in Great Barrington were attended by residents of the community who are working to address challenges around maintenance and other issues. Great Barrington residents take great pride in the physical landscape and beauty of the town, and many of them do their own gardening and landscaping. Peer Trainer Mildred Valentin Torres helped run the training, sharing her lessons of working with tenant groups in Chelsea.

Participants had the chance to sharpen their skills in team building, outreach, conflict resolution and running meetings, as well as the opportunity to learn about state regulations and tenant protections, and how to build a strong tenant organization.

In Ludlow, residents from five housing authorities in the area, including Ludlow itself, participated in the resident board member training. Jessica Quinonez, the Resident Board Member in Springfield, helped out as a Peer Trainer.

Resident board members enjoy meeting each other and being able to share and learn from each other’s experiences and challenges. In addition to networking, participants of this training had the opportunity to learn about budgets, capital plans, and the overall role of the board member.

Moving forward, the residents and resident board members who participated in these trainings will receive continued support from our partner, the Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants. They will also be invited to the ongoing learning community supported by the Public Housing Training Program, which provides regular online meet ups and scholarships to other Mel King Institute trainings.

To learn more about the Public Housing Training Program, please contact Program Manager, Sarah Byrnes at sarahb@macdc.org

By the Numbers: CDCs That Led the Way in Supporting Families in 2018

August 15th, 2019 by Don Bianchi

MACDC is proud to document the collective impact of CDCs in our annual GOALs Report.  In the 2019 Report, we celebrated this collective impact CDCs achieved in 2018: 

  • Engaged 1,910 Community Leaders 
  • Built or Preserved 1,535 Homes 
  • Created or Preserved 4,305 Job Opportunities 
  • Provided Technical Assistance to 1,369 Entrepreneurs 
  • Invested $801.5 Million in Local Communities 
  • Supported 84,224 Families with Housing, Jobs, or Other Services 

What does it mean that the CDCs collectively supported over 84,000 families?  By digging a little deeper into the numbers, we’ve highlighted CDCs which led the way in delivering programs and services to families that need them. Significant attention is (rightfully) paid to the affordable housing developed by CDCs, but there is so much more to their work.  Click on the links that accompany the numbers below, to see some great examples of how CDCs are improving the lives of those who live in the communities they serve. 

 Helping Families Acquire, Preserve, and Improve Homes: 

  • Through its programs to help low-income residents deal with home repair needs in their homes and address lead hazards, NeighborWorks Housing Solutions preserved 162 homes
  • NeighborWorks Housing Solutions also led the way on homebuyer counseling, providing pre-purchase education to 1,144 first-time homebuyers. 
  • Oak Hill CDC, through its NeighborWorks Homeownership Center of Central MA, offered the assistance of certified housing counselors to 133 families to help them avoid foreclosure, with 77 families receiving a loan modification or other positive outcome.
  • Way Finders helped 1,763 maintain their existing rental housing or obtain new permanent housing (separate from their administration of rental assistance programs) 

 Assistance for Those Seeking Employment and Owning a Small Business: 

  • Codman Square NDC provided Adult Basic Education to 123 individuals.  Its Men of Color/Men of Action Initiative focused on to providing support and leadership development in the Codman Square/ Four Corners Community.  
  • Through its English language program, the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing (WATCH) offered classes at three levels to 255 people, supplemented by one-on-one tutoring. 
  • The Neighborhood Developers provided 1,769 people with Job Training and Workforce Development assistance.  Through its CONNECT Program, TND partners with five agencies working to improve the financial mobility of low-income families. 
  • Common Capital provided personalized business assistance and financing to 505 small business entrepreneurs.  An affiliate of Way Finders, Common Capital is certified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI). 

Building Assets and Financial Stability: 

Helping Youth and Elders: 

  • Community Teamwork assisted 626 elders.  For more than 35 years, Community Teamwork’s Senior Corps Volunteer Program has paired senior volunteers with nonprofit organizations, children and others. 
  • ​Groundwork Lawrence served 1,753 young people through several initiatives.  Its Green Team offers part-time, paid positions to Lawrence high school aged students each year to learn and lead local environmental and health initiatives. 

For a full list of CDC accomplishments in calendar year 2018, see the 2019 GOALs Survey Tables. 

Secretary Kennealy and Undersecretary Chan Visit MACDC Members’ Affordable Housing Projects

August 6th, 2019 by Nadine Sanchara

Secretary Kennealy on a visit to Valley Community Development's Sergeant House, a 31-unit supportive housing development in Northampton

MACDC would like to thank Secretary Mike Kennealy, and Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development, Janelle Chan, for taking the time to visit affordable housing projects across Massachusetts.

On August 6, they will be concluding a three-week long tour of 28 affordable housing projects. We are thrilled that they visited the real estate development projects of five MACDC members:

2Life Communities: The 132 Chestnut Hill Avenue project in Brighton boasts 61 units of affordable senior housing.

B’nai B’rith: A vacant elementary school in Swampscott is being redeveloped into affordable housing units for seniors.

B’nai B’rith: Phase 2 of The Coolidge project in Sudbury is currently in development and, when concluded, will add 56 units of affordable housing for seniors.

Housing Corporation of Arlington: The Downing Square project in Arlington spans two sites with a total of 48 units, including 16 deeply affordable, five units for homeless tenants, and a space for a food pantry.

Valley CDC: The Sergeant House Expansion project in Northampton consists of the renovation of 15 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units, and the construction of 16 new SRO units.

Valley CDC: The Lumber Yard project in Northampton is redeveloping the former Northampton Lumber Company into 55 units of family rental housing and commercial space.

Way Finders: The Live 155 project in Northampton is a 70-unit transit-oriented development, 47 of these units being affordable housing, with access to support services for tenants.

 

Strengthening Hospital-CDC Partnerships – A new focus of MACDC

August 2nd, 2019 by Elana Brochin

Massachusetts hospitals devote millions of dollars annually to public health programs that serve their surrounding communities. As hospitals shift the focus of their public health programs towards upstream issues such as housing, education, and employment, it is important that they partner with organizations that are engaged in these areas, such as CDCs.

One of my roles as the Program Director for Health Equity at MACDC is to facilitate relationships between CDCs and their local hospitals. I view supporting these partnerships as building upon my previous role in which I worked to strengthen the state guidelines that direct many of these investments. The updated state guidelines provide the tools for hospitals to increase the transparency by which these investments are made and to increase community involvement in program planning and implementation.

Hospitals, as the institutions that ultimately control the focus of these investments, must commit to engaging community partners. While hospitals may have additional tools and incentives for engaging their community partners, many community organizations continue to find the procurement of hospital funding to be an opaque process. For a CDC, securing a seat at the table in which these investments are discussed is not an easy task. However, there are muscles that potential community partners can build in order to achieve successful partnerships with their local hospitals.

One way in which community organizations can learn more about the nuances involved in hospital investments is through trainings offered by the Mel King Institute for Community Building. Last March, the Mel King Institute held a training in which participants had a chance to learn about different types of hospital investments. For example, participants discussed the distinction between Community Benefits investments – which are annually budgeted for – and Community Health Improvement investments – which are episodically tied to capital expenditures.  Becoming well-versed in these different types of investments, is the first step toward meaningful conversations between CDCs and potential hospital partners.

This coming year, in partnership with the Mel King Institute, I will be introducing several trainings in which we will discuss the challenges associated with developing partnerships and continue to develop the language and the tools needed to initiate and deepen these crucial partnerships between CDCs and their local hospitals. The following are examples of topics that we’ll discuss in upcoming Mel King Institute Health Equity trainings:

Establishing a common language to talk about health equity
 CDCs must deepen their understanding of the pathways by which various social determinants of health (e.g., housing, employment, and education) contribute to health disparities. By establishing a robust vocabulary in which to have meaningful conversations with institutional partners CDCs will be better positioned to advocate for hospital investment in their work.

Deepening understanding of hospital funding

It is important to understand how community health programs fit into the complex hospital financing equation in order to better understand the role of community organizations in this process. Better understanding hospital financing is increasingly important as the system changes, such as the trend toward shifting from the pay-for-service model to Accountable Care Organizations.

The importance of long-term partnership building

 It is not surprising that small- and medium-sized community organizations become interested in partnering with hospitals when they hear of potential funding opportunities. Partnerships, however, rarely originate from a grant opportunity. Organizational relationships must be cultivated long before an opportunity becomes available. It is for this reason that CDCs must cultivate relationships with hospitals independent of a specific funding opportunity.

Keeping track of individual investment opportunities

CDCs must devote time and resources to keeping track of opportunities. This can mean there is a lot to keep track of: in many areas of the state, several hospitals serve the same region and the timeline for hospital investments vary by hospital and by type of investment. CDCs must have a mechanism for learning about funding opportunities as they become available.

What are questions that you have about cultivating relationships with your local hospitals? What challenges have you encountered? What would you like to learn about in this area?

MACDC's top priorities supported in FY 2020 State Budget

July 25th, 2019 by
This past weekend, the FY 2020 Budget Conference Committee came to an agreement on a $43.1 billion budget proposal, which the House and the Senate subsequently approved on Monday, July 22. With the support of many members of the House and Senate, MACDC is thrilled that the following programs received funding:
  • The Small Business Technical Assistance (SBTA) program's funding increased by 50% from $2 million in FY19 to $3 million in FY20. Additional funding will support new businesses, new jobs and the overall increased economic stability in neighborhoods and towns across the Commonwealth. To learn more about the program and the powerful results for which it's noted, go to MGCC's website;
  • Chapter 206 funding available to the Division of Banks was increased by 40% to $2.805 million. This program supports nonprofit housing counseling services that provide homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention counseling;
  • Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative: A new $750,000 capacity-building program through MassHousing and MassDevelopment, in coordination with MACDC and MassINC. This program will help local governments and community partners implement neighborhood-level revitalization efforts to address vacant and abandoned properties in Gateway cities and rural areas and convert these buildings into homeownership opportunities and rental housing.  Check out the study released this past January by MassINC and MACDC "Building Communities of Promise and Possibility" upon which this recommendation was drawn;
  • CPA Trust Fund: Most recording fees at the Registries of Deeds will be increased from $20 to $50, which would raise an estimated $36 million in additional annual revenue for CPA beginning in 2020, and increase the CPA match for all 175 CPA communities to approximately 30%. The Conference Committee also agreed to language that will authorize up to $20 million from the state's budget surplus to expand the November 2019 distribution. CPA exclusively supports the creation of affordable housing, preservation of historical sites, open space preservation, and development of recreational facilities.

State Funds Workforce Housing and Narrowing the Racial Homeownership Gap

July 25th, 2019 by

On July 9, Governor Baker, joined by Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development Janelle Chan, and MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay, announced $86 million in new funding to expand the Administration's Workforce Housing Initiative, including $60 million to support homeownership and help to narrow the racial homeownership gap. About 500 new workforce homes, i.e. affordable housing that would be in close proximity to the workplace, for moderate-income, first-time homebuyers will be created, along with an additional 260 new workforce rental units. 

ONE Mortgage program made more affordable in Boston

July 25th, 2019 by

On July 18, Mayor Marty Walsh announced that the Barriers to Homeownership Working Group, in a partnership with the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), worked to create the ONE+Boston mortgage program, which will be launched this fall. The new program, offered by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP), is intended to make progress on the original ONE Mortgage program and aims to permanently buy down interest rates for first-time home buyers earning less than $90,000 in a two-person household, which in turn will create more opportunities for low- to middle-income families to buy a home.

A Dozen MACDC Member Projects Among Rental Round Award Recipients

July 18th, 2019 by Don Bianchi

On July 18th, Governor Baker and other officials announced the award of $80 Million in subsidy funding, as well as state and federal tax credits that will generate more than $260 Million in subsidized private equity, for the development of affordable rental housing.  When completed, these 28 projects will create or preserve 1,581 homes, including 1,349 affordable units, with 273 of these affordable units reserved for extremely low-income households. 

 

The developments awarded funding include 12 projects sponsored by MACDC Members, resulting in the creation or preservation of 500 homes, including 467 affordable units: 

 

Nuestra Comunidad’s Bartlett Station Building A, part of a multi-phase redevelopment of a former MBTA lot in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, will offer 42 newly-constructed rental units, including 30 affordable units. 

 

Dorchester Bay EDC will renovate 56 affordable units at Dudley Terrace Apartments in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. 

 

Urban Edge’s Holzer Park, a transit-oriented development in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, will involve the new construction of 62 units, including 54 affordable homes.

 

Lena Park CDC, in partnership with the New Boston Fund, will newly construct 47units- including 40 affordable units- as Olmsted Green Rental Phase IV, one of the final phases of the redevelopment of the former Boston State Hospital in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood.

 

Mission Hill NHS will newly construct 46 units, including 43 affordable homes, as Parcel 25 Phase 2, in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood.

 

The Neighborhood Developers were awarded funds for two new construction projects for low-income seniors, with services, in Everett: St. Therese Condo 1 (44 affordable units), and St. Therese Condo 2 (33 affordable units).

 

North Shore CDC is developing Harbor Village, a mixed-use project in Gloucester which will offer 30 affordable units.

 

The Women’s Institute is newly constructing 30 affordable units in Sandwich at Terrapin Ridge.

 

B’nai B’rith Housing New England is redeveloping a vacant elementary school in Swampscott into 38 affordable homes at Senior Residences at The Machon.

 

Berkshire Housing Development Corporation’s Cole Avenue project will consist of is constructing 41 newly constructed units, including 38 affordable units, on a town-owned, former industrial site in Williamstown.

 

Worcester Common Ground’s 126 Chandler project in Worcester will combined adaptive re-use of a long-vacant mill building and new construction to create 31 affordable homes. 

 

In order to receive a funding award, each CDC had to demonstrate its capacity, which has been enhanced through the Community Investment Tax Credit Program.  When coupled with the subsidy resources necessary for affordable housing development, these CDC projects will provide high-quality homes for 500 families and seniors for many years to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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