The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will distribute $147.9 million across two programs to accelerate and support housing production initiatives. The funds will enable communities to turn abandoned commercial buildings into homes and subsidize low-income housing.
The bulk of the awards will come from the Affordable Housing Development (AHD) grant program, totaling $139.5 million. The funding will support the development of 15 rental housing sites across the state. These efforts will result in 1,008 new homes predominantly targeting individuals and families in financial hardship. This includes 903 affordable homes and 284 homes for extremely low-income households.
Funding allocations through the AHD program will include:
- $81.4 million in Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC) subsidies.
- $32.4 million in state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
- $25.7 million in federal 4% and 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
Projects covered by the program will include new construction, preservation and rehabilitation of existing facilities and adaptive reuse of housing. Recipients will typically include households earning less than 60% and 30% Area Median Income (AMI) and those who are transitioning from homelessness.
The remaining $8.4 million will come from the newly created Commercial Conversion Tax Credit Initiative (CCTCI). Recipients will use the funds to convert underused or abandoned commercial properties into housing. A total of five projects will receive funding, including:
- $3.6 million to create 198 homes in Worcester by converting a historic office building into rental homes.
- $1.4 million to create 23 homes in Pittsfield by converting a historic office building into rental housing, street-level retail and a commercial kitchen.
- $1.3 million to create 35 homes in Fitchburg, converting an office building into rental housing with street-level retail.
- $1.1 million to create 65 homes in New Bedford by converting a former nursing home into rental housing.
- $970,000 to create 18 homes in Boston by converting a historic office building into rental housing, street-level commercial space and second-floor tenant amenity space.
Photo by Dwight Burdette, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
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