Wu administration doles out $69m in affordable housing funds
Annual city funding round will support 14 projects — a few of them controversial — in many corners of Boston
Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration on Friday announced $69 million in new city funding for affordable housing developments around Boston — including a few that have stirred opposition in their neighborhoods.
The city will distribute the money to 14 projects. They range from converting the shuttered Constitution Inn in the Charlestown Navy Yard into affordable housing with services for formerly-homeless people to a 31unit building with a community theater in Roslindale Village to a 41-unit building on a vacant lot in Mattapan. In all, the money will help fund 826 units of housing, 775 of them set aside at income-restricted prices or rents.
“Collaborating closely with our community, we’re leveraging all available resources within the city to tackle Boston’s housing challenges,” said Wu, in a statement. “The housing grants symbolize substantial commitments to strengthen our communities and enhance affordability, continuing to establish Boston as a home for current residents, families, and future generations.”
The city allocates this sort of housing funding each year, most of it drawn from money raised by the 1 percent Community Preservation Act surcharge paid by property owners and from so-called linkage fees charged on new commercial construction. Typically, the city money is just one slice of a project’s financing; most will also leverage private funding and an array of other federal and state loans, grants, and tax credits. But with both construction costs and interest rates sky-high right now, every dollar helps, developers say.
“We are immensely proud to be selected as a recipient of this year’s affordable housing funding awards,” said Adler Bernadin, president of Norfolk Design Construction, which is partnering with the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations to build six for-sale homes and a community garden on four city-owned lots in Mattapan. “[With] our Mildred Ave. development project, through the integration of affordable housing and a community garden, we aim to create a space that nurtures both physical and social health.”
Twenty-four projects applied for the funding, and the city selected 14 based on a variety of criteria. The city gave preference to development teams with at least 30 percent of their leadership composed of people of color and to teams that promised at least 30 percent of so-called “soft costs” would be spent with woman- or minority-owned subcontractors. Each project will be required to follow the city’s zero-emissions building guidelines in construction. Many are located close to transit and will include community space.
Several of the projects the city funded have stirred pushback, including the Constitution Inn redevelopment in Charlestown, which is currently subject to a lawsuit by neighbors who say the Boston Planning Development Agency did not conduct proper public review before approving it last year. Trinity Financial’s 72unit building at the Shawmut Red Line station in Dorchester, which neighboring Epiphany School has sued to stop, also received funding, as did the expansion of St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children in Jones Hill, which neighbors are threatening to challenge in court.
Other projects to receive city funding include: 95 Everett Street in Allston-Brighton; 247 Hancock Street and the Hillsboro Live Work Condominiums in Dorchester; 2 Shawsheen in East Boston; the redevelopment of the Forbes Building in Jamaica Plain; Residences at Blue Hill and Tree House at Olmsted Village in Mattapan; Parcel 25 in Mission Hill; and Nehemiah at 157 Blue Hill Ave. in Roxbury. Specific funding amounts for each project were not immediately available on Friday.
‘Collaborating closely with our community, we’re leveraging all available resources within the city to tackle Boston’s housing challenges.’ MAYOR MICHELLE WU