Housing

August 2025 Housing and Real Estate Updates

August 20th, 2025 by Don Bianchi

Housing and Real Estate Updates

by Don Bianchi, Director of Housing

 

 

State’s Rental Round Awards Will Create or Preserve 1,245 Homes 

MACDC Members on Track to Develop 513 Rental Units 

 

On July 31st, in Winchester, Governor Healey, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, and Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) Secretary Augustus, announced the award of $182 million in low-income housing tax credits and other subsidies to 21 affordable rental housing projects. 

 

These 21 developments will create or preserve 1,245 rental homes across the Commonwealth. MACDC Member organizations received 10 of these awards, to create or preserve 513 apartments, 41% of the total apartments that will be developed. In the 2024 rental round awards announced last summer, 31% of the homes to be developed were by MACDC Member organizations- meaning MACDC members’ share of the awards increased by 10% from the prior year! 

 

Of the 10 projects containing 513 rental units which will be created by MACDC Member organizations, 487 affordable units (95% of the total) will be affordable- and 188 of these affordable apartments will be affordable to extremely low-income (ELI) households- many of them homeless- with incomes below 30% of area median income. 

 

Four of the ten MACDC Member projects will be in the City of Boston: 

  • Southwest Boston CDC will preserve and rehabilitate 68 Homes, a scattered-site family housing project. Of the 68 rental units, 67 will be affordable, and 22 of these will be further reserved for ELI households. 
  • 250 Seaver Street, sponsored by Commonwealth Land Trust, will provide 16 single-room occupancy units for homeless individuals, who will be able to access supportive services. 
  • VietAID will preserve and refinance 1392 House/19-21 Faulkner in Dorchester, to continue providing 18 units of both affordable family housing and single-room occupancy housing for homeless individuals, with extensive supportive services provided. 
  • Mildred Hailey 2, a new construction project for families in Jamaica Plain, will be developed by Jamaica Plain NDC. This phase of the Bromley Heath public housing redevelopment will consist of 65 affordable apartments, and 17 of these further reserved for ELI households. 

 

Three MACDC Member projects will be in Western Massachusetts: 

  • Home City Development will newly construct Ferry Street in Easthampton, on a site including former mill buildings. The project will offer 96 rental units, including 91 affordable apartments, with 27 of these reserved for ELI households. 
  • EconoLodge Redevelopment in Hadley is the adaptive reuse of a closed hotel as permanent supportive housing.  Valley Community Development will produce 50 affordable apartments, with 31 of these units further reserved for extremely low-income households, primarily homeless individuals. 
  • Hearthway will newly construct Eagle Mill Phase II in Lee, in partnership with Rees-Larkin. The project will provide 44 units, including 24 affordable apartments, with 8 apartments reserved for ELI families. 

 

Three MACDC Member projects will be located in Eastern Massachusetts, outside of Greater Boston: 

  • Asian CDC will newly construct 213 Main Street in Malden, which will offer 20 affordable family units. Of these, 5 units will be reserved for ELI households. 
  • HSL Stoughton, a new construction project for seniors in Stoughton sponsored by Hebrew Senior Life, will provide 96 units affordable to seniors, with 36 of these apartments reserved for ELI seniors. 
  • NeighborWorks Housing Solutions will newly construct Cranberry Manor Phase II in Wareham. All 40 units will be affordable to seniors, with 8 of these homes reserved for ELI seniors. 

 

Emily Haber, MACDC’s President & CEO, attended the award announcement in Winchester, and noted the following: “MACDC is proud that of the 21 projects funded in the recent Rental Housing round, 10 of them are being developed by MACDC members, resulting in the production and preservation of 487 units of affordable rental housing. We are excited to see so many of our members recognized by the Administration in this important funding round as we know MACDC members are making a difference addressing the affordable housing crisis in communities across the Commonwealth.” 

 

Commenting Closed
0 comments

June 2025 Housing and Real Estate Updates

June 13th, 2025 by Don Bianchi

Division of Banks Awards More Than $3.5 Million for CDCs and Other Nonprofit Agencies Counseling Homebuyers and Homeowners 

 

On May 29, 2025, the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s Division of Banks (DOB) awarded more than $3.5 million in grants to 24 nonprofit organizations to fund first-time homeownership education programs and foreclosure prevention counseling centers throughout Massachusetts. These awards- the highest annual awards in the program’s history- were made under the “Chapter 206 Grant Program”- named after the Chapter in the groundbreaking 2007 law enacted in response to the nation’s financial and foreclosure crises.  Despite the current fiscal challenges faced by the Commonwealth, this year’s Chapter 206 awards by the DOB affirmed the importance of these proven counseling agencies which assist homeowners who are experiencing financial hardship and prospective homebuyers who are determining if homeownership is right for them. 

 

As in prior years, MACDC Members led the way, with 16 collectively receiving more than $2.6 million, three quarters of funding awarded, including awards to the following organizations: 

ACT Lawrence 

Allston Brighton CDC 

Asian CDC 

Codman Square NDC 

Community Development Partnership 

Franklin County Regional Housing and Redevelopment Authority 

Lawrence Community Works 

Neighborhood of Affordable Housing 

NeighborWorks Housing Solutions 

NewVue Communities 

Somerville Community Corporation 

South Middlesex Opportunity Council 

Southeast Asian Coalition of Central MA 

Urban Edge 

Way Finders 

Valley Community Development 

 

We are grateful to the DOB for its able stewardship and championing of the Chapter 206 Program, and to the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the MA Legislature for their support for the Program. 

 

From the MACDC GOALs Survey, we know that CDCs provided homebuyer counseling to almost 5,700 households in 2024, and foreclosure prevention counseling to more than 600 households. It’s a powerful combination: sound public investment coupled with a high-capacity nonprofit program delivery system. Since the inception of the Chapter 206 Grant program in 2008, DOB has awarded more than $30 million to organizations that have collectively assisted more than 109,000 consumers. 

 

 

MACDC Convenes Forum on Acquisition Strategies, Launches Broader Initiative 

 

On May 20th, MACDC hosted an Acquisition Forum at Urban Edge, bringing together CDCs, public and private intermediaries, and other experienced practitioners. The assembled 59 practitioners, in-person and online, discussed the challenges associated with acquiring properties characterized as Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, or “NOAH,” residential properties offering some level of affordability but not publicly subsidized. 

 

The Forum launched MACDC’s Acquisition Strategies Initiative (ASI), a Community of Practice, with support from The Boston Foundation. The acquisition of NOAH properties can be an important affordability preservation and anti-displacement strategy in rapidly appreciating real estate markets.   

 

The Acquisition Forum was highlighted by three panels: 

  1. The current landscape in the City of Boston 

  1. The current landscape outside Boston’s city limits 

  1. The path forward on property acquisitions 

 

We will follow up with two peer learning sessions over the coming months, and the ASI will culminate with MACDC authoring a report summarizing the learnings, assessing the different strategies, and providing resources for further exploration. 

 

We will invite all the individuals from MACDC Member organizations who participated in the May 20th Acquisition Forum to participate in two 90-minute virtual peer learning discussions, as follows: 

  • Monday, June 23rd at 2 p.m.: The discussion focus will be on best practices in acquiring NOAH properties. 
  • Wednesday, July 23rd, at 2:30 p.m.: The discussion will focus on public policies to support NOAH property acquisitions. 

 

If you did not attend the Forum, and would like to be part of acquisition strategies conversations going forward- or just want more information about the ASI- reach out to MACDC’s Director of Housing, Don Bianchi (donb@macdc.org) or MACDC’s Data and Equity Specialist, Gracie Theobald-Williams (gracietw@macdc.org).  We’d welcome your participation! 

 

Commenting Closed
0 comments
Subscribe to Housing