Author: Dilia Ramirez

Massachusetts Sets Affordable Housing Preservation Record

Massachusetts preserved 4,397 units of affordable rental housing during 2015 – the most ever in a single year – according to data released yesterday by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC).

CEDAC is a public-private community development finance agency that provides financial and technical assistance to nonprofits involved in affordable housing development and preservation, agencies that promote workforce development and child care facilities that serve families in low-income communities.

CEDAC’s data shows that 5,259 total units from 38 project developments across the state were preserved using various types of state financing in 2015. The projects span the state and consist of large- and small-scale developments in both urban, suburban and rural communities.

“Preservation is a critical part of the affordable housing equation and a priority in the state,” Bill Brauner, CEDAC’s director of housing preservation and policy, said in a statement. “There are a variety of federal and state incentives available to support affordable housing in Massachusetts. It is quite an achievement for the commonwealth when more than 5,000 units of housing are preserved and it shows that many of our innovative tools are working effectively.”

SourceBanker & Tradesman

New Codman Square Rental Housing Project Now Underway

Construction has begun on the mixed-use Whittier Lyndhurst Washington Homes redevelopment in Codman Square. The multi-site project will represent a $20.1 million investment and create 44 units of affordable rental housing, according to Mayor Martin Walsh, who led a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on Tuesday.
Four Codman Square sites are being developed within the project, including the renovation of 15 units of public housing at the Whittier School site, 13 new units of affordable rental housing adjacent to the school on Darlington Street, and the renovation of eight units on Lyndhurst Street. The property at 472 Washington St. will include 1,000 square feet of commercial space, along with another eight new rental units.
“In Boston, we are committed to building a city that holds opportunity for every person and every family, no matter their background, age or financial status,” Mayor Walsh said. “I’m proud that the city’s investment in this project will help support new affordable rental housing for families and I want to thank the many partners who are working to help us achieve our housing goals.”
The Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation., which is leading the project, anticipates completing the first phase of the project this summer.
As the properties are part of the Talbot Norfolk Triangle Eco-Innovation District, the Talbot Norfolk Triangle Neighbors United group worked with the city to ensure compliance with the district’s green standards.
According to the mayor’s office, the Department of Neighborhood Development contributed $1.6 million to the Homes. Also providing funding were the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, NeighborWorks America, RBC Capital Markets and Bank of America.

Http://www.dotnews.com/2016/new-codman-square-rental-housing-project-now-underway
© Copyright 2016 Jennifer Smith. All Rights Reserved

SourceDotNews

Baker Administration Awards $2M For Job Training

The Baker Administration has awarded more than $2 million in grants from the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund (WCTF) to support 14 regional partnerships between businesses, educational institutions, community-based organizations and workforce development groups in an effort to help prepare state residents with additional skills and job training.

“The key to the success of Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund is active involvement between local businesses, community-based organizations, education and workforce development professionals,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement. “These partnerships create opportunities for the citizens of the commonwealth and work to strengthen regional economies.”

Grant recipients include:
• Asian American Civic Association – $157,000 for jobs in finance and insurance
• BEST Corp. Hospitality Training Center – $135,002 for jobs in hotels
• Boston University – $99,986 for jobs in life sciences
• Brockton Area Workforce Investment Board – $179,992 for jobs in transportation and warehousing
• Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board – $160,473 for jobs in advanced manufacturing
• Community Learning Center, city of Cambridge – $149,133 for jobs in health care
• Holyoke Community College – $190,000 for jobs in culinary arts
• Lawrence Community Works – $190,000 for jobs in educational services
• Madison Park Technical Vocational High School – $64,344 for jobs in automotive technology
• Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board – $190,000 for jobs in transportation
• MetroNorth Regional Employment Board – $160,000 for jobs in hospitality
• Partnerships for a Skilled Workforce – $186,902 for jobs in retail
• Tech Foundry – $123,808 for jobs in information technology
• YouthBuild Boston – $60,000 for jobs in construction

SourceBanker & Tradesman

A jewel for the homeless celebrated in Jamaica Plain

A collection of Red Sox and Patriots caps lines a windowsill. A purple comforter is neatly folded on a bed. A box of Raisin Bran sits on a counter.
Warren Magee is proud of his new home at Francis Grady Apartments in Jamaica Plain after several years of being homeless.
On Saturday, Magee joined more than 100 people to celebrate a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 30-unit affordable housing and medical complex on Walnut Avenue.
“I am beyond words,” Magee said, a smile shining across his face.
The Boston native spent two years living at the Pine Street Inn. Before that, he slept anywhere he could find a warm or dry spot — abandoned cars, empty buildings, and MBTA stations, he said.
“This is redemption for all of that,” said Magee, seated in his power wheelchair, in his cozy studio apartment. “I’m on top of the world right now.”
The $10 million-plus complex, funded by a mix of city and state affordable housing funds, is a joint project of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and the nonprofit Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp.
The red, three-story building is the former site of the Barbara McInnis House, a short-term medical care facility run by Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program that relocated to Albany Street in the South End.
Along with 30 studio apartments, the complex also includes the Stacy Kirkpatrick House, a 20-bed medical facility providing respite care, on the first floor.
The project, which took eight years to develop, was a collaboration of many agencies, said Barry Bock, chief executive for the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.
“I think what sustained us was the partnerships . . . and the neighbors, and the community,” Bock said in an interview. “Three hundred and thirty people signed a petition supporting us.”
“There were times where we didn’t think we’d get here,” said Richard Thal, executive director of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Kirkpatrick House is equipped with three medical clinics, a nurses station, handicapped-accessible showers, and other amenities.
“It’s a jewel that’s in a neighborhood that has always welcomed us,” said Sarah Ciambrone, director of clinical innovations at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.
The medical floor is named for the late Stacy Kirkpatrick, a nurse practitioner who cared for homeless people. It will be a transition facility for patients discharged from the Barbara McInnis House. It will officially open June 6, Ciambrone said.
Maria Sanes, a native of Puerto Rico, came to Boston a year ago for liver surgery. She lived at the McInnis House before moving to the Grady apartments two months ago.
Her apartment is bright, clean, and decorated with flowers on the wall.
“I feel good,” she said, seated at her kitchen table. “I know that this is not a shelter.”

SourceThe Boston Globe

Former Agawam Police Academy Will House Vets Following Redevelopment

Citizens Bank’s Community Development Lending Group yesterday announced a $10 million financing package for Soldier On Inc.

Soldier On, a nonprofit that provides social services and transitional and permanent housing for veterans, will use the construction financing to repurpose a former policy academy in Agawam as an affordable housing development for vets.

The former Western Massachusetts Regional Police Academy at 702 South Westfield St. will be turned into the new 51-unit Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Village.

The design calls for dining facilities and offices in addition to 51 studio apartments. A 56-square-foot, single-story annex will be built and attached to the main building by a covered walkway. Thirteen of the units are reserved for veterans at or below 30 percent AMI, and 38 units for veterans at or below 60 percent AMI.

“We value our partnership with Citizens and appreciate the banking team’s great ideas and timely execution,” Soldier On CFO Bruce Buckley said in a statement. “Citizens’ commitment to affordable housing and military veterans is clear. Their experience with these types of transactions makes a big difference.”

SourceBanker & Tradesman

Stacy Kirkpatrick, 52; caregiver to the neediest

To those who live on the streets, Stacy Kirkpatrick was more than just a nurse practitioner at Boston Health Care for the Homeless — more than a caregiver who brought her healing presence to shelters. “She was my family,” said Larry Adams, who was her patient for many years.
“I was homeless and I was an addict. I was all messed up. I’m the kind of person, I don’t trust nobody,” said Adams, who helped found and chaired the health care agency’s Consumer Advisory Board. He put his faith in Ms. Kirkpatrick, however. “Her word was gospel. Whatever she said, I did. As a matter of fact, the reason I’m here is she saved my life.”
For 17 years Ms. Kirkpatrick ministered to the medical needs of Boston’s neediest — patients who because of wariness, mental illness, or substance abuse sometimes miss appointments and disappear, only to return weeks or months later, their health more fragile.
“Stacy never got emotional about control with patients. She knew how to wait until they were ready. For a clinician, that’s difficult,” said Kathleen Saunders, a nurse practitioner colleague at Boston Health Care for the Homeless for whom Ms. Kirkpatrick was a mentor.
“I think that’s what made her so successful in her care of patients,” Saunders added. “They would always come back. There was never any judgment about why they missed this appointment or that appointment. It was always, ‘I’m so glad to see you today, tell me what’s happening now?’ ”
Ms. Kirkpatrick, whose skill at instilling a sense of family extended from her patients and colleagues to ever-widening circles of friends that reached back to her youth in Texas, died of cancer March 16 in her Medford home. She was 52 and had raised about $60,000 for cancer research and treatment by riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge several times after her initial diagnosis 11 years ago.
“I carried the names of over 90 people who are affected by cancer given to me by donors,” she told the Medford Transcript in August after finishing what turned out to be her final fund-raising ride.
Each year, Ms. Kirkpatrick “would ask friends and families to give her names of people they wanted her to ride for — they might be survivors, someone in treatment, or someone to be remembered,” said Carole Hohl, a work colleague and longtime riding friend. “She would carry those names with her either in her saddlebag or sometimes pinned to her shirt and dedicate her ride to those people.”
And in her heart, family and friends say, Ms. Kirkpatrick carried the names of everyone she befriended — a list that grew endlessly. “She was such an incredibly warm, welcoming, friendly, and funny person that everyone she met ended up becoming a friend, and she maintained those friendships for many, many years,” said Ms. Kirkpatrick’s wife, Karen Shack.
“She pulled together personal friends, work friends, and family from all different parts of her life and connected people with each other, and everyone felt special,” Shack added.
Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, said Ms. Kirkpatrick was “one of those rare people who, when they’re around, everything just seems better and when they’re not around, something seems missing. She infused joy into everyone around her. You realized that she had a magical effect on everyone she met.”
Ms. Kirkpatrick grew up in Texas, the only child of Mike Kirkpatrick and the former Leah Lacaze. Her father worked for Southwestern Bell, AT&T, and the engineering school at Southern Methodist University. Her mother worked for Southwestern Bell.
At Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas, Ms. Kirkpatrick played tuba in the orchestra and marching band and continued as a musician at Southern Methodist University, from which she graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
For several years she worked as a copywriter for The Container Store and in marketing for companies such as Cellular One, moving to Boston to be closer to friends.
A decade out of college, she enrolled at the MGH Institute of Health Professions and received a master’s in nursing in 1999. Clinical rotations during school introduced her to caring for the poor, and the year she graduated she joined the Boston Health Care for the Homeless staff as a nurse practitioner, becoming associate director of clinical operations in 2013.
“There was always something in her that was drawing her to that kind of work,” Shack said. They were introduced through a mutual friend while playing squash and were a couple for 25 years, marrying in 2005.
Ms. Kirkpatrick “had a phenomenal relationship with her patients,” said Dr. Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer at Boston Health Care for the Homeless. Along with a “keen clinical sense,” Ms. Kirkpatrick brought boundless compassion that made her seek out patients for checkups and updates many times each year at the Long Island shelter and St. Francis House, said Gaeta, who added that “she would lose sleep about people she was worried about for any reason.”
Such devotion might suggest that Ms. Kirkpatrick left little time for life away from work, but that was never the case. “She was a connector across different groups of friends. People would come together through her,” Gaeta said.
Ms. Kirkpatrick retained her Texas-born loyalty to the Dallas Cowboys but adopted the Red Sox as a favorite baseball team and often attended sporting events, ticking off entries on a must-attend list that included the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Indianapolis 500.
A music aficionado, she also went out to hear live music as often as possible and “always knew what the best new restaurants were in Boston,” Saunders said. “She had a real thirst for culture and experiencing things. She had an endless amount of energy, and I don’t think she took anything for granted.”
Family and friends are planning a private gathering to celebrate the life of Ms. Kirkpatrick, who in addition to Shack leaves her mother, of Fairview, Texas.
On Saturday at 11 a.m., a ribbon-cutting will take place in Jamaica Plain at a 20-bed medical respite facility for the homeless that is being renamed the Stacy Kirkpatrick House. Ms. Kirkpatrick began her Boston Health Care for the Homeless career in 1999 at the building, which was then called the Barbara McInnis House.
In 2005, Ms. Kirkpatrick was diagnosed with breast cancer and treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The diagnosis, she told the Medford Transcript, got her interested in the Pan-Mass Challenge, which she first rode in 2008. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, she returned to ride again last summer. In the autumn, she learned that the ovarian cancer had recurred.
“We knew each other for over 25 years,” Shack said. “I don’t think I heard her once over the entire time I knew her complain about anything related to her — the pain or anything. That’s a testament to who she was as a person.”
Ms. Kirkpatrick, Shack said, dealt with each diagnosis and treatment with the optimism she brought to all parts of her life.
“She suffered terribly over the past few years, and she never once came to work without smiling,” O’Connell recalled. “She knew how to handle suffering in a way that she turned into joy.”

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SourceThe Boston Globe

Walsh Says Boston Is On Track To Meet New Housing Goals

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh recently announced that according to the city’s quarterly housing report, Boston remains on target to meet the goal of creating 53,000 units of housing by 2030.
According to his Q1 2016 housing report, 565 new housing units were permitted this quarter, for a total of 17,183 units either permitted or completed since the launch of the administration’s housing plan, Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030, in October 2014.

“Our population is growing faster today than at any time in our city’s history, and I’m committed to making sure that Boston stays affordable by meeting the demand of our growing city,” Walsh said in a statement. “By working across multiple agencies, this administration is working every day to bring new units on line at a variety of income levels, and we are seeing results.”

According to the report, more than 3,000 new units, representing $1.4 billion in new investment, were approved by the city this quarter, resulting in an active development pipeline of 18,644 units of housing. In total, 35,808 new units of housing have either been completed or are in the development process.

The administration said there are more than 8,000 new units of housing currently being built in Boston. The mayor’s office said that represents more construction employment in the housing sector than at any time in the last 20 years.

By the end of Q1 2016, enough new housing had been completed to house 20,237 new Bostonians. Completions are now exceeding projected population growth. In the last year, enough housing came on line to house 5,900 people, while the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s projection for population growth is 4,590 people per year.

The report said rents are rising across the board, but two-bedroom apartments in older buildings (those built prior to 2011) are only up 3 percent. Studio rents are up 13 percent and one-bedroom rents are up 9 percent.

Certain neighborhoods across the city may also be seeing slower rental pricing growth in existing stock: in Back Bay/Beacon Hill, Mattapan, the South End and the Central district, rents have only risen by one to 2 percent since 2014, according to the report.

SourceBanker & Tradesman

DELEO OPENS REVERE EARLY-ED CENTER

REVERE — There’s a new place in town for kids to hang out.
For Kids Only Afterschool (FKO) held its grand opening Friday at its new Youth In Motion facility in Revere. Construction crews broke ground on the $2.8 million project on Broadway one year ago. The building, which can house up to 120 children, was funded by the state’s Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund, community grants, donors and FKO.

For three decades, FKO has provided year-round, out-of-school programs to children ages 5-14. The program provides children with academic, recreational and social opportunities.
Theresa Jordan, Children’s Investment Fund program manager, said 95 percent of the children FKO serves come from low-income families.

The two-story building features a library and computer lab, a nutrition cafe, a half-court gymnasium and a dance and yoga studio. The school also has a reflection room, which will be used to promote healthy stress management, as well as a kitchen and classrooms.

“There has never been a more exciting time for afterschool and summer learning in Revere,” said Deborah Kneeland Keegan, FKO’s executive director.

Youth In Motion’s after-school program operates during the school year from dismissal until 6 p.m. Children receive a healthy snack, homework support and academic enrichment classes, which help students develop new skills and interests, according to its website. Youth In Motion also provides summer programs, as well.

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said FKO has been a positive force now for many years, and thanked everyone present at Friday’s ceremony for their commitment to the kids and to Revere.
“When kids are healthy and active, they are more likely to excel both in the classroom and outside of it,” said the Winthrop Democrat.

State Rep. RoseLee Vincent (D-Revere) called the new building a “perfect addition to the revitalization of Broadway.”

“Youth In Motion will help the children and families of our city for years to come,” she said.
Thomas Weber, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, said the program prepares children for school and life.

“It is well established through research that environments influence the architecture of a child’s developing brain,” he said. “So having program spaces that facilitate positive experiences for children is critical.”

While Mayor Brian Arrigo could not be present for the ceremony, his wife, Daveen, said that the opening of the new facility is something they’ve both looked forward to for a long time. She thanked everyone involved for their commitment to ending childhood obesity.

http://www.itemlive.com/news/deleo-opens-revere-early-ed-center/
© Copyright Dillon Durst. All Rights Reserved.

SourceItemlive

Warren pledges to push for Lawrence grants

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren met with city leaders Monday to discuss a range of issues, from affordable housing to transportation improvements, praising efforts made in these areas and pledging to advocate for the city at the federal level to help that work continue.
“The federal government wants to be a good partner to the people in Lawrence, and it’s my job to try to make that happen, whenever and wherever I can,” Warren, D-Mass., said.
To start her visit, Warren met with Mayor Daniel Rivera, several city employees and elected officials to hear the city’s plans to apply for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery federal grant funds, known as TIGER money.
She then moved to the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Inc., where she read to children in the Head Start program and heard about the GLCAC’s efforts to assist residents with everything from visa issues to heating their homes.
Rivera said it was important for the state’s senior senator to come to Lawrence both to celebrate the work that was being done in the city and to understand what still needed to be done to help improve the quality of life and expand opportunities in the city.
“To have such an influential person in the U.S. Senate be our senator, and then to have her come to Lawrence, is the leg up Lawrence really needs,” he said.
Warren called Lawrence a city with “great, great opportunities.”
“I like being in Lawrence because Lawrence is a gateway city in the true meaning of that word,” Warren said. “It is a gateway for people who are building a future, that’s what Lawrence is all about.”
Transportation improvements
Lawrence is seeking TIGER funds for an estimated $10 million in transportation improvements to a 1.6-mile stretch of road through the city’s downtown — from the Five Corners intersection north up Parker Street, across the Merrimack River to Amesbury Street, then to the intersection with Lawrence Street — designed to increase safety and make downtown Lawrence more easily navigable.
“We want to make multimodal transportation access better for everyone, whether that’s pedestrians, bicyclists, motor vehicles,” said Theresa Park, the city’s planning director.
The city is looking to make infrastructure improvements at the Five Corners intersection, from upgrading traffic signal equipment to making sure the roadway complies with the Complete Streets policy for all modes of transportation.
Then, the city is looking to turn Amesbury Street from a one-way roadway into a two-way roadway to help provide more direct access to locations in the city’s downtown. Motorists heading north on Amesbury Street are diverted either left or right after crossing the North Canal, limiting direct access to areas such as the Buckley Parking Garage or Northern Essex Community College, she said.
Plans also call for a roundabout at the intersection of Amesbury and Lawrence streets.
The one-way system “really makes navigation or way-finding within downtown difficult. It forces people to drive out of their way,” Park said.
The improved access and upgraded infrastructure could also help spur job growth, city officials said.
Rivera said the senator offered her perspective on the city’s application – the TIGER program is competitive, and Lawrence was not selected for a grant last year. She helped officials refine the city’s message for that application.
After discussing the grant, Warren, Rivera and elected officials, including state Sen. Barbara L’Italien, D-Andover, and state Reps. Frank Moran and Marcos Devers, D-Lawrence, headed to the GLCAC building for discussions about the organization’s services, its successes, and what resources it needed to help continue serving residents.
“People come here to get their foothold in American society, they come here in the neediest part of their lives, and I think organizations like the GLCAC make that transition easier,” Rivera said.
The GLCAC’s Head Start program was among the successes highlighted to the senator, but there were calls for increased salaries and more support for teachers.
Warren said while “we are not in the position we were in three years ago” when sequestration in Washington resulted in program cuts, including closures of Head Start centers, there was still a fight to be had.
“It is a reminder that what we need to do is we need to be putting more resources, not fewer resources, into Head Start,” she said. “I agree this is the best investment. The nickels we put into children is dollars that will pay off when they’re teenagers.”
Lawrence District F City Councilor Marc Laplante asked the senator whether the city should focus on maintaining and growing its middle class.
“Lawrence shouldn’t just hold onto people it educates, it should attract people,” Warren said. “That’s the kind of community that really is about building a future. A future isn’t just let us give you a start so you can go somewhere else to live a secure life, you can do that right here in Lawrence.”
Linda Soucy, program director for fuel assistance at the GLCAC, spoke of staffing and service issues for her program, which has nearly 12,000 clients. Staffing has been cut nearly in half since she started in 2008, the amount of money clients receive for heating assistance has diminished, and planning issues arise from not having their entire budget released to them at once, she said.
“We have to have the money come in,” Soucy said. “We’re just trying to do our best to make sure people live in safe, warm houses.”
Warren noted it was sometimes a challenge to get those federal funds for heating assistance.
“We don’t do it every time, we don’t win every battle, but I’ll tell you, we will get out there and fight, and fight for what’s right for families in Lawrence,” Warren said.
While each issue was discussed separately, Warren said they are all connected when it comes to advancing quality of life for families in Lawrence and beyond.
“It’s the reminder that all of the pieces work together. If a family doesn’t have housing, then they can’t be secure, they can’t get their children educated, they can’t build any kind of future,” she said.
“But if they get in that housing and can’t keep it heated, then they can’t be safe. If they get in that housing and they keep it heated but they have small children that can’t make it into a Head Start program, then their children will have more difficulty not just immediately, but over the very long run of their years in school and their working years,” she continued.
Given that, Warren said it was hard to prioritize just one issue to focus on in Lawrence.
“It truly is the case that we need to push forward on multiple fronts at once so the pieces can work together,” Warren said, adding, “We know what our families need. The federal government just needs to put the resources in so that we can deliver for our families.”

SourceEagle Tribune

Walsh Announces More Than $28M To Support Affordable Housing In Boston

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced $28 million in funding awards to support the creation of affordable housing throughout Boston yesterday. The funding, which will preserve or produce 837 housing units, comes from $21 million of federal and local resources awarded through the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) and $7 million of Linkage funds, awarded through Boston’s Neighborhood Housing Trust.

“We are committed to creating a Boston where everyone who wants to live here, can afford to,” Walsh said in a statement. “I thank our local, state and federal partners for these housing investments that create good jobs and fuel our economy.”

The new funding will leverage more than $323 million of public and private investment in the neighborhoods, and will help to create an estimated 500 construction jobs. These developments will also create 125 units for homeless or extremely low-income families.

With the awarding of these funds, the Walsh Administration has now made more than $66 million in affordable housing available since Walsh took office.

SourceBanker&Tradesman