Grant Making

On Tuesday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will deliver her annual State of the City address. Last year, the mayor announced a new initiative to create more affordable housing, making this pitch to developers, “Local builders: work with us to design high-quality, affordable homes that enhance the surrounding neighborhood, and we’ll give you the land for free.”So what has happened in the year since?Multiple, diverse development teams with local connections responded with proposals, and in October, the Mayor and City housing officials designated four teams to develop the first phase of a program the City calls “Welcome Home, Boston”, funded with $58 million from the Federal Government’s American Rescue Plan Act, and a City subsidy of up to $150,000 per development. Following an internal audit, the City is making a total of 150 parcels available for the program.”The vacant land from this first set of parcels has been in the City of Boston’s inventory for an average of more than 34 years,” according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office of Housing.The first phase of development includes 20 parcels and will create more than 60 new affordable homes in multi-unit buildings on Erie Street, Geneva Avenue, Glenway Street, Harvard Street, and Norwell Street mostly in Dorchester. “This is going to be our first project,” said Abdulkadir Hussein, the CEO and founder of ACEDONE, which has been designated by the city to develop seven units on Erie and Glenways streets. Speaking at the designation ceremony in October which was held on part of the land his group is now developing Hussein spoke to the need for more affordable housing in Boston. “A lot of our young professionals who are the backbone in our community, and the families are actually leaving the city because of lack of affordable housing. This is an opportunity to address that issue,” he told the dignitaries and guests.Marie Morisset and Phillip Cohen are the principals of the firm Boston Communities. They’re developing 24 units on three different sites on Harvard Street.”These homes are all going to be for people earning 80% of area median income and 100% of area median income,” Cohen said. “What that means is that they’re going to be sold in the $200s and $300s. There might be a four-bedroom that’s $410,000 about. Those are possibly going to change a little bit they usually increase by about 2% per year, but we’re talking about half of market, or less than half of market.”Mattapan native and Marine Corps veteran Adler Bernadin and his business partner Duane Boyce are the founders of Norfolk Design and Construction. “Having the ability to give back to some of the same communities that we grew up in, it makes it all worth it,” Bernadin said. Now, he and Boyce are taking their decades of experience in construction management to build a total of 20 housing units on scattered sites on Geneva Avenue and MacNeil Way. “These developments do at the core of them they do provide opportunities, in the way of jobs for a number of folks, in addition to the benefit at the end with the families,” Boyce said. The city-selected development teams say that in order for the buyers to truly benefit in the long term, everything about the development must be sustainable and not just environmentally, but economically sustainable, too. Architect Jennifer Ha and builder Milo Stella teamed up to form Dorchester Design Collaborative. They’re developing land on Norwell Street, with solar panels on the roof of each of their three multi-family buildings. “The way we look at affordability, it’s more than just a low sales price, right? What’s the cost of ownership over a 30-year mortgage? And what’s the cost of upkeep and utilities?” From day one of occupancy, these buyers will have solar credits that should be sufficient enough to offset their electric bills every year.””This is what well thought-out design means, like we considered after the fact, when they move in how are they going to be sustainable, considering their savings from electricity, and maybe having those savings contribute toward condo fees which is probably a new fee that they haven’t experienced that offsets that problem,” Ha said. Some developments could break ground as soon as this year, depending on planning, permitting and other considerations. Construction could be completed in 2026. The homes will be available for purchase via a lottery system. The city will be offering grants to eligible first-time homebuyers for reduced mortgage interest rates and up to $50,000 in direct assistance, including money for the down payment and closing costs. According to city statistics, Boston currently has an overall homeownership rate of 35%. The statewide rate is 62%. Homeownership rates in Boston vary significantly by race and ethnicity. 44% of white households are homeowners. That stands in contrast to 31% of Black or African American households, 30% of Asian or Pacific Islander households, and 17% of Hispanic/Latinx households.