Category: CEDAC

Report Finds Massachusetts At Risk of Losing 9,500 Units by 2019 Due to 40-year Mortgage Maturity

Report Finds Massachusetts At Risk of Losing 9,500 Units by 2019 Due to 40-year Mortgage Maturity
January 31, 2011
The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) released an analysis this month of outcomes when housing developments in Massachusetts have reached the end of their 40-year HUD-subsidized mortgage with no other affordability restrictions.
“The Year 40 Problem in Massachusetts– Analysis of the First Wave of Housing Projects” reports that 17 of the 19 projects that have reached year 40 with no other restrictions lost some or all affordability and that 55% of the affordable units (2,105) were lost. It found that having a Section 8 contract was the strongest predictor that units would be preserved while location and market rents were not predictive. Overall, 70% of the Section 8 units in the 19 developments were preserved, but only 13% of the shallow subsidy units. The report details the economic logic of this finding and estimates that Massachusetts could lose 9,500 of the 13,200 affordable units in 110 projects that will reach maturity by 2019 (1,200 with Section 8 and 8,300 shallow subsidy units).
Full CEDAC Report

Hyperlink: http://www.melkinginstitute.org/2011/01/report-finds-massachusetts-at-risk-of-losing-9500-units-by-2019-due-to-40-year-mortgage-maturity/

SourceMel King Institute Blog

A haven for homeless veterans: Pittsfield community a first in the nation

A haven for homeless veterans
Pittsfield community a first in the nation

By David Abel
Globe Staff / November 8, 2010
PITTSFIELD — Like too many veterans of the Vietnam War, Tom Clark has been homeless for years. Now he’s making a list of all the domestic items he will soon need — a loveseat, vacuum cleaner, an iron — and considering things he never imagined would be a concern, such as how to match his bedding with curtains.
“This is unbelievable that this is possible,’’ said Clark, 58, a former Marine corporal, as he shared his list of household items with fellow veterans from nearby shelters who will join him this month in a new, daintily manicured complex in Pittsfield.
It is the nation’s first community of its kind for homeless veterans and part of a new approach to fighting homelessness: Instead of moving those without homes into overcrowded emergency shelters or transitional places far from services, the $6.1 million project that looks like a high-end condo complex provides them with attractive one-bedroom and studio apartments for as long as they want to stay.
The new community, which was built beside a shelter for veterans and includes an array of mental health and addiction services, allows the veterans to buy in with a $2,500 deposit and, depending on the size of the apartment, make regular payments of either $640 or $740 from their disability checks or other income to an association that they run.
Local banks are helping some of the veterans cover their deposits, and others will be allowed to pay them over time. They will also build equity, and the units will be theirs as long as they make their payments.
“There’s nowhere else like this in the country,’’ said Peter Dougherty, director of homeless veterans’ programs for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, who said that last year, there were an estimated 107,000 homeless veterans, down from about 250,000 a decade ago.
“It offers a unique opportunity to take veterans that have been homeless and turn them into homeowners,’’ he said. “It really is an opportunity that has not happened in other places yet. We’re really interested in seeing how well it works.’’
The project was the idea of the directors of Soldier On, a local nonprofit provider of services for homeless veterans that houses about 500 veterans a year at shelters and transitional housing in Pittsfield and Leeds. The group broke ground last year on the project after receiving money from a congressional earmark and state grants.
Jack Downing, president of Soldier On, said he was inspired by the idea that there is a simple solution to homelessness: housing. But he noted that the challenge in previous efforts to house the homeless has not just been finding housing but keeping the homeless in their homes.
“I realized that we were sending people to facilities where they were going to be isolated and lonely, which is the gateway to mental illness,’’ said Downing, whose group plans an additional 120 units for homeless veterans at the former State Police Training Academy in Agawam and a similar number of homes on the Veterans Affairs campus in Northampton. “When I saw what else was out there, I thought that we had to come up with something different.’’
Unlike other programs, he said, their project will give the homeless a sense of ownership and a feeling of permanence. They will be free to decorate their new homes as they like and do what they choose inside. But when they experience hard times or have other problems, they will be able to turn to a community of like-minded veterans who will be their neighbors.
They will also be able get help when needed from social workers and therapists at the adjacent shelter, which is separated from the new development by a small parking lot.
“It’s taken a lot to get this launched, but this is where homelessness ends,’’ Downing said. “We expect this is where these guys will spend the rest of their lives. We’re going to build a memorial wall here, so people know who lived and died here.’’
Unlike the shelters and other housing run by Soldier On, which sometimes removes people if they are caught drinking or using drugs, act violently, or violate other policies, he said there will be few rules for the veterans moving into the new housing, aside from obeying the law.
“We will treat them like adults,’’ Downing said.
The project is named the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, after the former deputy secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs Department. Mansfield served from 2005 to 2008 and helped build support for the project.
“This is completely unique and hopefully leads us in a different direction,’’ Mansfield said in a phone interview, noting that the high expenses would make it a difficult program to replicate on a large scale. “I really believe that this is the kind of solution we need.’’
The multicolored apartments each have large windows and closets, solar panels on the roofs, modern kitchens, tiled floors, and handicap-accessible showers.
Most of them look onto a grassy courtyard with newly planted trees, benches, and other amenities, including several Vermont Castings grills and a horseshoe pit. There will also be a laundry room and gym for residents.
The scope of the project has made the veterans, who were chosen from a pool of residents at Soldier On’s other facilities, excited and nervous.
Lenny Costa, 58, a former Army corporal who spent years fighting a heroin addiction, said he hasn’t been able to sleep recently, because he was so excited about his new place.
“It did scare me for a while, but I’m going to have a big safety net all around,’’ said Costa, who said he can hardly wait to take up cooking. “The way things are I can’t afford not to live here. All I can say is that we’re really fortunate.’’
Jay Baran, 47, who served as a fireman in the Coast Guard, said he feels like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.’’
“I keep thinking, ‘There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home,’ ’’ he said. “This is as much of a win-win opportunity as I could have imagined. I’d be crazy not to take this.’’
As for Tom Clark, his list includes a colander and blender, a cutlery set, baking pans, end tables, and the stuff that turns water blue in the toilet. It continues to grow as other vets give him ideas.
“I see this as a new beginning,’’ he said. “Really, it’s the beginning of a new life.’’
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/08/pittsfield_a_haven_for_homeless_veterans/?page=2

SourceBoston Globe

A lifeline’s fight to grow

A lifeline’s fight to grow
By Adrian Walker
Globe Columnist / November 8, 2010
Wanda Lugo has a big smile, a gregarious personality, and a list of ailments that would be daunting for anyone, let alone a woman who spends her life shuttling between homeless shelters.
“I have diabetes, sciatica, arthritis, and asthma,’’ she told me last week. “Before, I wasn’t taking good care of myself. I was out on the street trying to control my blood sugar as best I could. Since I’ve been here, it’s been in the normal range.’’
We were talking at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program’s headquarters in the South End. Through its Barbara McInnis House, this underappreciated organization offers short-term clinical care for homeless people whose ailments simply cannot be effectively treated in the course of life on the streets. People with diabetes qualify, as do cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Dr. Jessie Gaeta is the medical director of the McInnis House, and she has seen firsthand how treatment and housing go hand in hand.
She has come to think of homelessness as a pressing medical issue.
“Diabetes is a great example,’’ she told me. “If you’re living outside, you don’t have access to a refrigerator. Even carrying syringes is a problem, because it makes you a target.
“People would come in and I would do my best, but no matter what I did, they couldn’t control their glucose levels or keep their blood pressure down. I began to realize that the single biggest thing they needed was a stable living environment.’’
The average stay at the McInnis House is a few weeks, but for many patients the key to better health and longer lives is to find housing permanently.
That is the premise behind the organization’s proposed project in Jamaica Plain.
At the original site of the McInnis House, near Egleston Square, Health Care for the Homeless has big plans: a facility that would combine medical care and permanent housing for homeless people.
But there is also a battle brewing. Though the proposal has been approved by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, it has generated opposition from some residents who seem to believe that the presence of formerly homeless people could be bad for the neighborhood.
The project still has to be blessed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and opponents have quietly pressed City Hall to block it.
Health Care for the Homeless officials are so wary of conflict that they barely want to discuss it. And the conflict is especially strange because the same group ran a facility at the very same site for 15 years, before McInnis House moved to the South End a couple of years ago.
“We have had a lot of support from the neighborhood over the years, and I would rather focus on that,’’ said Bob Taube, the group’s executive director. “This project will greatly extend what we can accomplish.’’
The opponents appear likely to run into a formidable foe of their own: the mayor.
“Of course I support it. It’s a space for people to rebuild their lives,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. “These are people who’ve fallen on hard times.’’
He said he had been surprised that the project was meeting with neighborhood opposition. “People in Jamaica Plain are very sensitive to the human factor.’’
The planned building would not be a shelter; the whole point of it is to get people out of shelters.
I met a man named Darrell Dupont at McInnis House. He is 47 and has multiple sclerosis, among other ailments.
He said he is healthier now than he has been in a long time, after a few weeks off the street, and he explained the importance of having a roof over his head very succinctly.
“Without this place, I’d be a goner,’’ he said. “I know that. Without this, I wouldn’t be here.’’
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

URL: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/jamaicaplain/articles/2010/11/08/a_lifelines_fight_to_grow/?s_campaign=8315

SourceBoston Globe

Mayor Menino Celebrates Additional Housing, New Retail at Hyde Square’s Blessed Sacrament Site

Mayor Menino Celebrates Additional Housing, New Retail at Hyde Square’s Blessed Sacrament Site
November 1, 2010
by Massachusetts RealEstateRama
November 1, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Thomas M. Menino today joined the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), New Atlantic Development Corporation (NADC), Harvard University officials, and community members in celebrating the new Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative, located at the corner of Centre and Creighton Streets. The mixed-use building, named for a long time Jamaica Plain activist, is the latest completed phase of affordable housing development at the $50 million Blessed Sacrament parish site.
Today’s ribbon cutting ceremony also marked the formal start of the third phase, which includes the renovation of the 13,700 square-foot former convent into 28 Single-Room-Occupancy units. Upon completion in early 2011, the campus will boast a total of 81 new housing units and over 7,500 square feet of retail space, totaling $28 million. Among other attributes, residents will benefit from an outdoor plaza for community gatherings and 145 off-street parking spaces.
“Today, we’re celebrating the evolution of the Blessed Sacrament parish site, and the new life that this redevelopment brings to the streetscape, the Hyde Square neighborhood, and the community at large,” said Mayor Menino. “The progress that the Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative demonstrates would not be possible without the tremendous commitment of JPNDC, New Atlantic, and their partners. But I especially want to commend the neighbors for their dedication to bringing new, quality, affordable housing to Jamaica Plain.”
In 2004, the Archdiocese of Boston announced the closure of the 115-year-old Blessed Sacrament parish in Hyde Square, prompting parishioners, residents and small businesses to work with the City and local organizations to develop a suitable plan for its reuse. Under the leadership of JPNDC and NADC, more than 1,400 signatures were collected in support of affordable housing and other uses that would benefit the Jamaica Plan community. The development team subsequently acquired the church and the 3.2 acres on which it sits in 2005.
The Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative boasts 36 units of affordable rental housing, 12 of which are already occupied, and 7,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space that is expected to house at least one new restaurant. Of the new units, 20 will be marketed to households at or below 60% of Area Median Income (AMI); eight of the units will be marketed to households at or below 30% of AMI; four of the units will be set-aside for participants of the Community Based Housing program through the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and the remaining four units will be set aside for formerly homeless residents.
Construction of the $15 million mixed-use building began last fall, following completion of the development’s first phase, Creighton Commons, through which the former parish rectory was renovated into 16 units of affordable homeownership housing.
The development has been made possible, in part, by a City contribution totaling more than $4.3 million, including $1.2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. Mayor Menino credited this substantial city investment to the leadership of Senator John Kerry, Congressman Michael Capuano, and Congressman Stephen Lynch, calling Massachusetts’s delegation instrumental in Boston maintaining a strong economy.
Blessed Sacrament is also one of the largest Boston-based recipients of funds made possible by the Harvard 20/20/2000 Initiative; a total of $1.3 million in low-interest loans through both Boston Community Capital and the Local Initiative Support Corporation supported the site acquisition as well as construction financing for Blessed Sacrament’s Phase I. The ribbon cutting was also an occasion to recognize the overall impact of the 20/20/2000 initiative, which celebrates its tenth year this year.
“Supporting the supply of affordable housing in Cambridge and Boston is just one of the many ways that Harvard is working to improve our local communities,” said Harvard President Drew Faust. “We are pleased to join with the leadership of both cities on the 20/20/2000 Initiative, which has helped to finance nearly one out of every six units built in Cambridge and Boston and provided many local working families with homes.”
Harvard 20/20/2000 was launched in 2000, in response to a growing need for affordable housing following the end of rent control in the 1990s, during which Boston and Cambridge both witnessed skyrocketing housing costs while federal and state resources declined. Leaders in Boston and Cambridge made increasing the supply of affordable housing a priority and Harvard responded with the initiative that included $10 million of low interest loans to non-profit housing agencies in each city coupled with $1 million in direct grants to local agencies to explore innovative approaches to affordable housing development. To date, 4,350 units of affordable housing in neighborhoods of Boston and Cambridge have been supported with 20/20/2000 funds.
Additional funding was made available by: Boston Community Capital; Local Initiatives Support Corporation; Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development; Affordable Housing Trust Fund; the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation; MassDevelopment; Massachusetts Housing Partnership; Property and Casualty Initiative; US Bank, and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

URL: http://massachusetts.realestaterama.com/2010/11/01/mayor-menino-celebrates-additional-housing-new-retail-at-hyde-squares-blessed-sacrament-site-ID0278.html

SourceMassachusetts RealEstateRama

Builders break ground on Townsend Woods

Builders break ground on Townsend Woods
By Anne O’Connor, Correspondent
Nashoba Publishing
Posted: 06/04/2010
TOWNSEND — Teamwork is the key word for the people working on Townsend Woods, an affordable, senior-housing development on Dudley Road in Townsend.
“The team effort is going to create a better project,” said architect Gregory Zorzi of Springfield’s Studio One Architects.
Funds were raised, plans drawn up and now construction has begun.
RCAP Solutions, the builder and owner of Atwood Acres, another elderly-housing development in Townsend, worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure funding for the second affordable senior housing in Townsend.
“The program is fiercely competitive,” Warren Mroz, senior project manager at department said. “Just getting it to this stage is a lot of work,” he said. The federal government can no longer provide complete funding, so the state granted funds through two different offices; a HOME grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development, and Housing Innovation Funds from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.
Townsend Wood’s designers at Studio One Architects specialize in designing senior housing. “You won’t know it’s affordable,” Zorzi said. Features are designed to enable seniors to age in a safe and attractive home.
Scooters will be able to be recharged right in front of the apartments. Common areas will provide friendly gathering places and a portico will keep people dry as they exit a vehicle into the building.
Walking distances will be minimized and fixtures will be designed to become handicap accessible as needed.
With molded oak hand rails, wall sconces and a fireplace, Zori promised the building would be attractive. The roof might be a “green” roof with plantings.
Townsend Woods will be extremely energy efficient and use environmentally-friendly building materials, he said.
Barr Construction, of Putnam, Conn., was chosen through a competitive bid process because of its experience building affordable senior housing.
The site is cleared, the slab poured and rough plumbing ready. John Darigan, the vice president of Barr Construction and project manager, said the construction is over 20 percent done.
Many of the contractors the firm is using for the project are local Darigan said. The flat site and gravel in the soil provides a stable base for the slab. Rich topsoil scraped off for construction will be reused in the landscaping.
Chris Novelli, project manager from Studio One, said the building is on schedule and on budget.
The construction has a minimal impact on residents at Atwood Acres. They continue to garden in front of the building site and have promises of more garden space when Townsend Woods is completed next spring.
The traffic pattern will be changed very little. Residents of the new 36-unit building will enter through the grounds of Atwood Acres. Darigan said the traffic pattern around Atwood Acres will remain one-way. Traffic in Townsend Woods will be two-way.
Affordable senior housing started to be built 40 to 45 years ago, Mroz said. The age of the residents in these buildings has risen. The average age in 1990 was 60 to 65. He said the new average of a resident in senior housing is closer to 80 now.

Copyright © 2010 MediaNews Group
URL: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/townsend_news/ci_15226710

SourceNashoba Publishing

Senior Living at Prouty Open House a Success

Senior Living at Prouty Open House a Success

May 15th, 2010

Nearly 300 people hailing from Spencer, other Central Massachusetts communities beyond came to Senior Living at Prouty for an Open House held on May 14. The well-attended event sponsored by Newton-based MHPI, Inc, included tours of the converted school as well as remarks from a number of special guests.
The day was the culmination of six years of hard work on the part of many as MHPI, Inc. converted the historic school building, which dates back to 1888 into 36 units of affordable housing for very-low income seniors. Along with its development team, MHPI worked tirelessly to preserve many of the timeless elements of the building while still managing to equip it with a host of modern amenities. The building represents MHPI’s first of hopefully many forays into Central Massachusetts.
Funding partners for the project, which cost approximately $8 million include the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, MassHousing and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.
“The pride I feel is undoubtedly shared by so many people here today,” MHPI President Sheldon D. Bycoff said. “This project has truly been one that recognizes the dire need of housing for the very low income elderly. To be able to transform a fabulous historic setting into a place for residents to call home is my mind an incredibly gratifying experience.”
Amongst the speakers addressing the standing-room only crowd were Bycoff, United States Congressman Richard E. Neal and newly-appointed Housing and Urban Development Regional Director Richard A. Walega. Also taking to the stage were State Senator Stephen Brewer, Department of Housing and Community Development Director of Housing Programs Andrew Nelson and Donald Berthiaume, Jr. the Chair of the Spencer Select Board.
Studio and one-bedroom apartment units are still available on a first-come/first-serve basis. To request an application, please contact Jane Karoway, Occupancy Specialist at 617-431-4924 or via email at jkaroway@mhpi.net.

Hyperlink: http://mhpi.net/2010/05/15/senior-living-at-prouty-open-house-a-success/

SourceMHPI.net

Lower-cost units remain in Hyde Park

Lower-cost units remain in Hyde Park

By Jeannie Nuss, Globe Correspondent | May 9, 2010

Mayor Thomas M. Menino told dozens of residents of Blake Estates in Hyde Park yesterday that their affordable housing complex will remain affordable until 2030.

“We’re going for 20 years of affordability right here at Blake Estates,’’ Menino said to an outburst of applause from the crowd.

Menino’s announcement came after negotiations with the property’s owner, Beacon Residential Properties, which agreed to extend the affordable housing contract with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The current Section 8 contract was due to expire this year for the 263-unit housing complex on Hyde Park Avenue that houses elderly and disabled people. Under the contract, seniors pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent.

Rosetta Wilson, a 75-year-old grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of three, has been living in Blake Estates for 10 years.

“I’m ecstatic,’’ Wilson said after yesterday’s announcement. “I don’t want to go to a nursing home or assisted living. I like to cook what I like to cook. I don’t want anyone to plan my meals for me.’’

Menino talked about his personal connection to the area, which is where he grew up.

“We work hard together. We don’t allow people to come in here and say, ‘Oh we’re gonna throw you out,’ ’’ Menino said. “We’re never gonna throw you out.’’

City Councilor Rob Consalvo called the extension a “great victory’’ for Hyde Park.

“All of you at Blake Estates are so important to the fabric of our neighborhood,’’ Consalvo said. “You are our neighborhood.’’

“You can live here and understand that you’re not going anywhere, and we’re not going anywhere,’’ he added. Still, Roger Herzog, the executive director of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, called attention to the difficulties that planners face in maintaining affordable housing and praised the mayor’s work.

“Mayor Menino, for his entire term as mayor, has really been a natural leader in making sure that places like Blake Estates stay affordable,’’ Herzog said.

SourceBoston Globe

Capping carbon and rent

Green building funds from the Obama administration may do more than help cut energy costs and shrink our carbon footprint — they could also be instrumental in preserving tens of thousands of affordable housing units now at risk.

Almost 17,000 Massachusetts apartments could move from “affordable” to out-of-reach over the next several years thanks mainly to expiring HUD and MassHousing subsidized mortgages first signed in the 1960s and 1970s. Increasingly, housing activists believe that green building funds may be one way to cushion the blow.

On April 14, affordable housing developers, policy advocates and green building experts brought together from across the country by a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation forum gathered in Boston to determine the best path forward to both cut energy costs and carbon production at our older housing stock, and to use those savings to preserve lower rents.

Virtually every month, somewhere in Greater Boston, Worcester or the Springfield area, apartment complexes built with federal or state assistance turn 40 — and with that anniversary, the mortgages that contain the use restrictions requiring owners to maintain the housing’s affordability to low- and moderate-income tenants expire. As the mortgages mature, many owners will have the option to retire their debt, end all affordability restrictions on the property and reposition their property as market housing.

Read more: Capping carbon and rent – Boston Business Journal:
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2010/04/26/editorial2.html

SourceBoston Business Journal Op-Ed

CHOICE Housing Complex breaks ground

CHOICE Housing Complex breaks ground
By Chloe Gotsis/ staff writer
GateHouse News Service
Posted Apr 05, 2010 @ 9:18 PM

Chelmsford — With a silver shovel in hand, Chelmsford Housing Authority Director David Hedison told a tale Monday afternoon of a dream he and his deputy director had 10 years ago: To create a campus setting for seniors of all economic backgrounds.
On a warm Monday afternoon, a group of town and state officials gathered next to a crane parked in a dirt lot behind the two completed senior housing buildings for the groundbreaking of Chelmsford Housing Opportunities for Integrated and Community Endeavors or CHOICE’s 37-unit affordable housing complex for seniors.
“This represents $9.6 million of funding from over a half a dozen sources,” said Hedison.
Town Manager Paul Cohen congratulated the efforts of Hedison, the Housing Authority and its nonprofit arm CHOICE, organized to help fund the senior housing complex.
“When we are getting limited developments [during these times] David and others keep soldiering on,” said Cohen, adding that Hedison will be asking Town Meeting to support two new housing developments at Town Meeting next month fand he fully expects these to pass as well.
Leslie Bos of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development called the CHOICE center a unique approach to affordable housing and commended Hedison and CHA for following through with the project during harsh financial times.
“Thank you for making this important project a reality,” said Bos.
In addition to housing the North Village Complex will include an on-site medical center and laboratory through a partnership with Saints Medical Center and an All Care Adult Health Center with on-site 24 hour staff care for residents.
Tony Fracasso of MassDevelopment Finance Agency, who is financing the project with tax-exempt bonds said the state’s finance authority was honored to help fund this project.
“It takes many many sources to produce affordable housing and that’s a reality,” said Fracasso.
The bonds were purchased through Enterprise Bank and Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
Hedison worked closely with Enterprise Bank throughout the process of applying for funding for the development, which will include 32 one bedroom units and five two bedroom units.
“What’s important about this project is the passion,” said Ryann Dunn of Enterprise Bank. “David is obviously very passionate about the elderly in this community.
The project will be built and designed by Mostue & Associate Architects, Inc. and Landmark Structures Corporation. The project was funded by a culmination of funding from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state DHCD, MA Affordable Housing Trust Fund, MassDevelopment, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, Chelmsford Community Preservation Funds, Enterprise Bank and Charles Farnsworth Trust.

Copyright 2010 Chelmsford Independent. Some rights reserved
Permalink: http://www.wickedlocal.com/chelmsford/news/x1664794134/CHOICE-Housing-Complex-breaks-ground

SourceWicked Local

CEDAC Web Portal, Designed and Implemented by Blue Robin, Provides Increased Productivity & Improve

CEDAC Web Portal, Designed and Implemented by Blue Robin, Provides
Increased Productivity and
Improved Business Processes
Submitted by: Blue Robin, Inc.
Waltham, MA February 2010 – Blue Robin, Inc., a leader in building customized eBusiness infrastructures, has completed the development and the implementation of a complete web infrastructure for CEDAC, (Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation) that includes a centralized, multi-domain portal Content Management System, CRM, and Event/Workshop portal management system. CEDAC is a public-private, community development finance institution that provides technical assistance, pre-development lending, and consulting services to non-profit organizations involved in housing development, workforce development, neighborhood economic development, and capital improvements to child care facilities. The CEDAC Web Portal includes a module that integrates all aspects of events, contact, and lists (databases). This module provides an access level based information management tool that contains the following feature sets: Event Registration & Management System; Dashboards; Contact Management (eCRM); Digital Dispatch Digital Dispatch( bulk email engine that will allow CEDAC to dynamically pull contacts into a list to merge with Microsoft Word.) CEDAC’s objectives are to continue to build brand identity, awareness, and interest in the organization and the services they provide, as well as to use the site to house forms used by borrowers, and grantees for requesting financial assistance from CEDAC. “Our multiple web sites are the main conduit and communication channel to provide content and interaction for all of our constituencies and target audiences. Centralizing our content, using Blue Robin’s Content Management System, has modernized and improved our web infrastructure tremendously and has improved our processes, both for internal and external users. It has provided CEDAC with the most efficient online structure to simplify and automate our processes for creating, managing and publishing content online, while maximizing the value of online user interactions with delivering a highly personalized experience,” states Karen Kelly, Director of Finance and Operations at CEDAC.
Building Customized eBusiness Infrastuctures
“We are delighted to be working with CEDAC. The primary objective was to help CEDAC better serve their customers while improving business performance. Our goal was to create an efficient and successful web infrastructure that meets and exceeds not only the current needs of the business and its intended end users, but also keeping an eye on the future,” says Hadi Shavarini CEO of Blue Robin. Hadi Shavarini, CEO, Co-founder, Blue Robin, Inc. P: 781-577-6010
hadi@bluerobin.com www.bluerobin.com Blue Robin provides and supports adaptable web infrastructure for businesses and organizations with 2 to 200 employees. Our cost effective web-based business automation solutions enable our clients to streamline their business processes, gain efficiency and accelerate their growth by leveraging the IT evolution. Blue Robin, Inc. 20 Lyman Terrace Waltham, MA 02452
Permalink: http://www.openPR.com/news/119531/CEDAC-Web-Portal-Designed-and-Implemented-by-Blue-Robin-Provides-Increased-Productivity-and-Improved-Business-Processes.html

SourceopenPR.com PR-Inside.com