Officials tomorrow will celebrate the opening of Cooper House in Roxbury.
“We must continue to support affordable housing in our neighborhoods, with great projects like Cooper House in Roxbury,” Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said in a statement. “By investing in affordable housing for seniors, we are helping our residents to remain in and revitalize Boston’s neighborhoods.”
Walsh and Jamie Seagle, president of Rogerson Communities, will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Cooper House, located at Walnut and Columbus Avenues. The building adds 37 new units of affordable elder housing to market and completes the renovation of what was a blighted three-acre parcel into an attractive block of housing that now includes four buildings, with a total of 161 low- income housing units.
The total cost of developing Cooper House was more than $10 million. Private contributions include grants from the Charles H. Farnsworth Charitable Trust, Bank of America N.A., Trustee, The Hyams Foundation and The Boston Foundation. On-going rental subsidy is provided by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Other funding for Cooper House included $5.7 million from HUD, $1.5 million in HOME funds from the city of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, $400,000 from a HUD planning grant and $155,000from a CEDAC pre-development loan.
Cooper House is one of three original structures located on the historic site of the Home for Aged Couples overlooking Franklin Park in Egleston Square. Rogerson Communities took on the redevelopment plan for the buildings in 1999. A fourth building, Spencer House, is new construction developed by Rogerson Communities. Spencer House opened in 2007 with 46 units of affordable housing and a state of the art Adult Day Health Center.