Honoring Mel King

On March 14th 2019, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) honored Mel King at its 40th anniversary celebration at the MIT Samberg Conference Center. King — a community organizer, former State Representative, and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning — crafted the state legislation that created CEDAC in 1978. CEDAC is a community development financial institution providing financing and technical assistance to community-based and other non-profit community development organizations in Massachusetts. In addition to Mel King, CEDAC was joined by DUSP Professors Emeriti, Langley Keyes and Tunney Lee, both of whom promoted and led state and local community development activities, including the visioning and creation of CEDAC.

The event’s main program was modeled on DUSP’s ‘lightning talks,’ three-minute presentations that communicate research and work in layperson language to promote sharing and collaboration across groups. The presentations focused on affordable housing preservation; supportive housing; and early education facility development. Speaker teams, composed of current and former CEDAC staff members as well as community partners, addressed the 40 years of engagement and evolution with these fields, future challenges, and the synergistic relationship for non-profits and the communities they represented. Many CEDAC staff members and leadership are DUSP alumni/ae, including Sara Barcan (MCP ’94), Janelle Chan (MCP ’07), and Roger Herzog (MCP ’87).

“Mel King provided the inspiration and vision for the community development movement, with his experiences 40 years ago fighting for community control of development. Mel’s role as an elected official in helping to create a state infrastructure to support community development, including CEDAC, was instrumental,” said Herzog, Executive Director of CEDAC. “The Massachusetts system serves as a national model of community development, and we are honored to have the opportunity to celebrate his contributions as we mark our 40th anniversary.”

The venue for the 40th anniversary event at MIT speaks to the Institute’s role as the space where the idea for a public/private agency that provides technical expertise to non-profit community development organizations was first discussed during the weekly sessions that King hosted for 25 years while teaching at DUSP and leading the MIT Community Fellows Program. These weekly sessions were called the Wednesday Morning Breakfast Group where King cooked breakfast and led discussions between community activists, planners, and students. A regular participant of the sessions, MIT doctoral student, Carl Sussman, became the founding Executive Director of CEDAC and later played a pivotal role launching and leading its affiliated organization, the Children’s Investment Fund, one of the few community development finance institutions across the nation focused exclusively on meeting the physical capital needs of early care and education programs.

The MIT Community Innovators Lab (CoLab), founded in 2007, is the direct MIT descendant of the Community Fellows Program. CoLab facilitates the interchange of knowledge/resources between MIT students and faculty with community organizations, to build practicable models of economic democracy and self-determination. CoLab’s Mel King Community Fellows Program (MKCF), provides participants with an opportunity to examine innovative approaches to development using markets as an arena for pursuing social justice.

“The CoLab’s Mel King Community Fellows Program embodies Mel King’s approach to planning and community development through his championing of cities and the communities that comprise those cities,” said Dayna Cunningham, Executive Director of CoLab and MIT Sloan Alumna (MBA ’04). “The MKCF honors Mel’s legacy by gathering current and future leaders of community-based work and providing them with the space to collaborate, learn, and refine their efforts for a range of social justice pursuits.”

In the 40 years since CEDAC was created, the organization has committed over $402 million in early stage project financing, and has helped to fund the creation or preservation of nearly 50,000 affordable housing units across the Commonwealth. Additionally, CEDAC manages a number of supportive housing bond programs on behalf of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), with commitments of more than $490 million over the past thirty years. These bond programs include the Housing Innovations Fund (HIF), the Facilities Consolidation Fund (FCF), and the Community Based Housing (CBH) program.

To learn more about CEDAC’s mission and current projects, click here.

SourceMIT Urban Planning News

For 40 Years, CEDAC Has Catalyzed Positive Change

For 40 Years, CEDAC Has Catalyzed Positive Change

Early-Stage Assistance Has Helped Build Housing, Transform Communities

By Roger Herzog

Special to Banker & Tradesman

In 1978, then- state representative Mel King introduced legislation that created the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), the nation’s first state agency designed to provide technical assistance to the burgeoning non-profit community development movement. The idea of such an agency grew out of the Wednesday Morning Breakfast Group meetings convened by Mel at MIT with community activists and planners. In Boston, the Group’s primary focus was the desire to establish community control over the redevelopment of acres of land in the heart of neighborhoods in the southwest area of the city that the state had taken by eminent domain for an inner belt highway. The highway was stopped through community activism and by 1978, it had become clear that there was a need for an agency like CEDAC.

In the 40 years since we were established by an act of the legislature, Massachusetts and the community development sector have changed tremendously. And so has CEDAC. We started as an economic development organization that provided technical assistance to community-based non-profits focused on small business development and job creation. But as the Commonwealth’s economy changed, we’ve evolved into a community development financial institution that provides early stage financing and technical assistance to non-profits seeking to produce and preserve affordable housing and non-profit early education facilities, through our affiliate, Children’s Investment Fund.

While it’s not easy to sum up 40 years of community development work, with its complications and challenges, the best way to share our accomplishments is to look at a sample of some of the non-profit development projects we’ve assisted:

Preserving affordable housing – the Chapman Arms story: since the early 1980s, CEDAC has fought to preserve the long-term affordability of subsidized multifamily housing, which is threatened by the time-limited use restrictions used as part of federal and state financing programs in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2009, the state passed an affordable housing preservation law, Chapter 40T, which provided the Commonwealth with new tools to monitor and address this expiring use challenge. One of the key tools is purchase rights that allow the Commonwealth’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) or its designee to acquire and preserve expiring affordable housing projects if an owner proposes to sell a building. In 2011, Chapman Arms, in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, became the first major project whose affordability was preserved through the use of Chapter 40T’s purchase rights. CEDAC delivered technical assistance to DHCD and its non-profit designee, Homeowner’s Rehab Inc., as well as a rapid commitment and closing on acquisition financing to preserve this mixed income 50-unit property.

Revitalizing neighborhoods – Northampton’s Live 155: Last year, Way Finders, a community development corporation (CDC) focused on Western Massachusetts, opened Live 155 in Northampton. The mixed-use, mixed-income, new construction development of 70 apartments has helped to transform an important neighborhood in that city, a gateway into the downtown district. CEDAC provided $2.6 million in early stage acquisition and predevelopment funding for that project, and similarly provided financing for Lumber Yard Apartments, a project by the Valley CDC across the street. These two projects have spurred significant public investment from the city, the state, and private partners. This is only one recent example of the effective role of CEDAC’s early stage assistance that supports community non-profits’ transformative efforts. Boston’s Jackson Square (where the original neighborhood battle against highway construction was waged) and Worcester’s Kilby-Gardner-Hammond are also examples where we’ve worked with community partners to reinvigorate those neighborhoods.

Supporting equitable transit-oriented development – the Residences at Fairmount Station: Late last year, Southwest Boston CDC and their development partner Traggorth Companies opened the Residences at Fairmount Station in Hyde Park, a 27-unit affordable housing development. The Residences represent equitable transit-oriented development – affordable housing built near the MBTA’s new Fairmount Corridor commuter rail line. Locations near transit offer opportunities for increased development density, and CEDAC and its financing partners provided $1.2 million in acquisition and predevelopment financing to ensure that low and moderate income residents can access these desirable locations.

CEDAC is celebrating our 40^th anniversary at an event this March and we will honor Mel King for both his vision and his belief in the power of people to strengthen their communities. In the four decades since he introduced that legislation, Massachusetts has evolved into a national model of community development, in large part because of the institutional framework he helped to create. It’s gratifying for us to look at the innovative projects above and recognize we are carrying on an important legacy.

Roger Herzog is the executive director of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.

BT_Reprint_Herzog_031119

SourceBanker & Tradesman

CEDAC Increases Limits on Home Modification Loans

A state lending program that helps qualifying participants finance home modifications has increased the maximum loan amount available to eligible borrowers.

The new maximum loan amount for the Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP) has been raised from $30,000 to $50,000, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC) announced today. The change reflects the increases in construction costs across Massachusetts communities over the past 10 years.

“We are deeply committed to our participation in a program that is transformational for so many Massachusetts residents,” HMLP Project Manager Susan Gillam said in a statement. “This increase in loan amounts for eligible borrowers will help them to fully realize their projects and not forego essential modifications to accommodate their special needs due to budget concerns.”

The HMLP has made more than 2,700 loans and disbursed nearly $63 million since the program’s inception in 2000. CEDAC works in cooperation with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development to administer the program and six nonprofit regional Provider Agencies work directly with applicants on their projects.

Eligible borrowers may qualify for a 0 percent interest, deferred payment loan. The loan does not require monthly payments. Full repayment is required when the property is sold or has its title transferred.

CEDAC Increases Limits on Home Modification Loans

SourceBanker & Tradesman

Loan plan helps seniors, disabled stay in their homes

Yvonne Ellison has lived in her home on Whitman Street near Codman Square for 35 years. A 65-year-old divorcee, she has raised four boys here on a quiet, dead-end side street near Dorchester High School. It was a perfect spot, she says, sitting, as it does, across the street from her parents, who owned the single-family house before selling it to her in 2003.
The proximity to her folks meant that her boys were raised with the help of their grandparents and she could use public transportation to get into her job working in the Secretary of State’s office in Boston. And when her mom developed a brain tumor that eventually took her life, Yvonne was right across the street and was her main caregiver.
Last year, though, Yvonne had to make a tough decision. She was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition that will likely cause her to need a wheelchair within a few years. As it is, she can barely get up and down her stairs. She was crawling up to her bedroom at night. She fell repeatedly. The situation was only going to get worse.
“There were a whole of things wrong with the house,” says Ellison. “A tree had come down on the back of the house. The whole back wall around the gutter there had rotted out. I said to my son, ‘I give up. I’m leaving.’” But one of her sons — Kenny — said no. “He was determined. He said, ‘Ma, after all these years of fighting to keep this place, you can’t give up now.’”
The work she would need to do to retrofit her home for her disability was daunting: a handicap-accessible bathroom on the first floor, where she would relocate her bedroom, and a ramp that would allow her to bypass her front stairs and gain access to her home from a rear door. The cost, she estimated, would be upwards of $30,000.
Yvonne found the help she needed, first, through the city’s Boston Home Center, an office operated by the Department of Neighborhood Development. The Home Center’s Homeworks program had already assisted Ellison several years ago when she needed a loan to fix her roof. Now, she called upon them again for advice.
The city sent her to the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, a quasi-public agency that administers state funds aimed at assisting low and moderate-income residents and their families with housing-related problems.
MBHP administers a state fund aimed at helping seniors and disabled people find an affordable means of making needed repairs and upgrades to their homes. It is called the Home Modification Loan Program.
The program “is one of our most exciting ones because it allows folks to stay housed where they are,” said Chris Norris, executive director of MBHP. “And for most people it does this at no cost for the owner or the tenant because we use a zero interest loan. So, for the majority of them there is no interest.”
Eligible homeowners, like Ellison, are not obliged to repay the loan until the property is sold or transferred. The program loaned out an estimated $600,000 this year to 27 different applicants. It has helped roughly 200 individual households since the program was launched in 1999.
“We have adequate funding for it and we have plenty of it to give,” explained Norris. “It also guarantees that you’ll have a professional coming out to do the work and you’ll pay a reasonable rate for it. We’ve done it for many years and recently it has been expanded by the Legislature to include cognitive disabilities like autism.”
In Ellison’s case, the MBHP responded to her request for assistance within about two weeks by sending a staff member to her home to do a site assessment.
The agency then helped her hire qualified contractors – ABC Construction and Thomas Maguire – to build out her bathroom and ramp. The total loan cost ended up being just under $30,000 and the whole process – which began by filling out a loan application last November – was completed in June 2014.
“I’m thrilled. It’s so easy to access, it’s wheelchair accessible, even though I’m not in a wheelchair yet. I can live down here (on the first floor) and my sons are upstairs. It works for me because I can stay in my home as long as I need to,” says Ellison, who has returned to work part time for the state thanks in part to the new ramp. She uses the MBTA’s Ride program to get around.
Ellison needed some good news. Last year, she lost Kenny at age 44. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January and was gone within three months.
The loss was devastating to Yvonne, who still mourns his death bitterly. “At least he was able to know that I was going to be able to stay here,” she said.
MBHP also runs the Housing Consumer Education Center, a regional nonprofit office that serves as a clearinghouse for services for tenants and property owners facing trouble. It is located on Lincoln Street in Boston, but can be accessed digitally at the agency’s website. In addition to the Home Modification Loan program, the agency also administers the RAFT program— short for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition. The program can help provide grants up to $4,000 per year to eligible households to pay for rent or for utilities that might have been shut off.

For more information on MBHP, call it’s a resource line at 617-425-6700.

SourceDorchester Reporter

Senior Scene: Feb. 21

Age in Place New England
Age in Place New England is owned by Dan Maybruck and Mark Buell. As a seasoned contractor working with people from all aspects of life, Mark realized there had to be a better way to serve homeowners who need to modify their homes in order to stay there longer, be safe, and in doing so enable them to be comfortable in their own home. Home Modification Loan Program is a state loan program that could help you or a loved one live more independently at home. The program provides loans to make modifications to the primary, permanent residence of elders, adults with disabilities, and families with children with disabilities. The modification to be made to residence must be necessary to allow the beneficiary to remain in the home and must relate to their ability function on a daily basis. Based on income guidelines, you may qualify for a loan of $1,000 up to $30,000, which is secured by a promissory note and mortgage lien. There are two loan options. If you qualify for a 0 percent loan, you do not make any monthly payments and no interest accrues. Repayment is required when the property is sold or the title is transferred. A representative of Age in Place New England, a home improvement company specializing in modification of homes, will be on hand at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, through lunch for anyone who would like to learn more about the Home Modification Loan Program and the services their company could provide to you.

SourceWicked Local Carver

Loan program provides options for the needy

May 2, 2013
Loan program provides options for the needy
By State Sen. Patricia Jehlen
Second Middlesex District
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)
Faced with physical limitations, some seniors and people living with disabilities may have difficulty navigating their own homes safely. In some cases, they might even be forced to move away or to assisted living facilities. The Massachusetts Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP) provides another option, the option of living independently and safely.
In our neighborhoods, the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP) administers funds on behalf of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. This state-funded program provides loans to seniors and those living with disabilities to undergo needed modifications to their homes. The modifications are necessary not only for convenience but also for safety and health, as research by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that home modifications and repairs may prevent 30% to 50% of all home accidents among seniors.
The HMLP can make expensive changes affordable to individuals or families who truly need accessibility to live more comfortably in their own home by removing the everyday obstacles that make getting around difficult. The simple widening of doorways, altering bathrooms or adding an entry ramp can make an astounding difference, allowing an elderly or disabled person to stay in the home they love.
As of March 2013, CEDAC and its cooperating agencies (including MBHP) have closed 1781 loans valued at $39.4 million since the program inception in 2000. Twenty-two percent (386) of those loans went to elders. Since April 2005 (when CEDAC started collecting more detailed information), 216 loans to elderly homeowners – valued at over $4 million – were closed. In Somerville alone $116, 415 has gone to modifying homes.
The loans provided by the HMLP are affordable—no- or low-interest. The program provides both deferred payment loans (DPL) and amortized loans. No-interest loans from HMLP do not have to be repaid until the sale of the home or a transfer of the title. The low interest loans from HMLP can be repaid in monthly increments over 5 to 15 years, at a rate of only 3% interest. These low costs allow families to invest now in making their homes accessible without the anxiety of high payments.
Homeowners are eligible for a loan if they or a member of their household is living with a disability. Additionally, landlords are eligible if they would like to make modifications to assist a tenant. The HMLP provides funding of up to $30,000 for modifications.
Living in your own home is a comfort that all of us deserve. The HMLP can help remove the barriers to allow the comfort of home to those who need it most.
The MBHP will be hosting an information session, “Housing Challenges and Opportunities: Partnering for Innovative Solutions,” on May 17th from 8:30 – 10:00am at the Walnut Street Center, 35 Charlestown Street, Somerville. For more information about the HMLP you can visit www.mbhp.org (under programs).

URL: http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/37828

SourceThe Somerville News

Home loans to help the disabled

Sunday, February 24, 2013
Home loans to help the disabled
When my mother became too unsteady on her feet several years ago to navigate from her back stoop to the garage, we had a carpenter build a railing around the stoop stairs and install a grab bar along the back of the house. The whole project ran maybe $1,000, a sum she could afford. If she couldn’t, family would have helped.
Sometimes though, even with family giving a hand, money is too tight for some people to make such needed renovations to their homes.
The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) has a Home Modification Loan Program that can help.
Established by the state Legislature in 1999, and refinanced several times, it has been expanded to include not just those with physical disabilities, but with cognitive, developmental, and neurological disabilities, and chemical sensitivities as well.
It covers simple things like ramp or bathroom grab bars or widened doorways.
Any homeowner who is a frail elder or has a disability, has a household member who has a disability, or rents to someone with a disability (in a building with fewer than 10 units) can apply for this loan.
Depending on the income, you can borrow between $1,000 and $30,000 to make improvements that will allow you to remain living in your home. The improvements have to relate specifically to the applicant’s disability and his or her ability to function on a daily basis.
Depending on income, some loans carry 3 percent interest and must be repaid in installments over five to 15 years. Some are 0 percent interest and not payable until the property is sold or has its title transferred.
Homeowners are allowed to hire the designer and/or the contractor of their choice.
These are one-time loans. Borrowers cannot come back for more funding for the same property once their project is complete.
Eligibility guidelines and instructions on how to apply can be found on the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission’s website –www.mass.gov/mrc/hmlp.
You can also call (617) 204-3739; or (800) 245-6543 (voice/ TDD) or email susan.gillam@state.ma.us.
You can also write to Home Modification Loan Program, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, 27 Wormwood St. Suite 600; Boston MA 02210, attn. Susan Gillam.

SourceThe Berkshire Eagle

Handicap access is Dracut man’s mission

SourceLowell Sun

Woburn Senior Center fall festival set for Sept. 28

August 23, 2012
Woburn Senior Center fall
festival set for Sept. 28
GateHouse News Service
Posted Aug 23, 2012 @ 04:57 PM

Woburn, MA — The Woburn Senior Center, 144 School St., will hold its annual Fall Festival on Friday, Sept. 28
Open House and Health Fair from 9 a.m. to noon, lunch and door prizes at 12:15 p.m. All age groups are welcome to attend. Lunch tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. on the day of the event on a first-come-first-serve basis for $3 per lunch.
Fall festival participants: AAA, ABC Home Healthcare, A Caring Place, All Care Resource, Apex Hearing, Atlantic Audiology, Atria Longmeadow Place, Aviv Adult Day Health Center, Best Home Care, Blaire House at Tewksbury, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Brightview Country Club Heights, Caregiver Homes of MA, Inc., Center for Cancer Support, City of Woburn Board of Health, Comfort Keepers, Cooperative Elder Services, Council of Social Concern, Council on Aging Transportation Department, DEAF Inc., Drawing Class Art Exhibit, Edward Jones Investments, Friends Helping Seniors, Gosselin Law, Greater Medford VNA, Griswold Home Care, Handyman Matters, Hallmark Health VNA, Hallmark Health Hospice & Lifeline, Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, Home Instead Senior Care, Home Modification Loan Program, Hospice of the North Shore, Joe Brown Digital Photography, Knit-Wits – Knitting/Crocheting Club, Law Offices of Spano & Dawicki, Lexington Health Care Center, Longwood Place at Reading, Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, Mass Relay, Matthew Kruger, MD – Eye Associates, Metropolitan Home Health Services, Minuteman Senior Services, Miracle Ear Hearing Center, New England Rehab, New Horizons at Choate, Noreen Murphy – Attorney At Law, NStar, Organizing Works, Peoplefit, Poison Control Center, Reading Co-operative Bank, Right At Home, Salem Five, Salter Healthcare, Inc., Samaritans Inc., Scrapbooking Group Exhibit, SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs), Social Security Administration, Social Capital Inc., Stilmee Alzheimer’s Coaching, Tidd Home, Tufts Health Plan Medicare Preferred, Visiting Angels of Mass, Visiting Nurse & Community Health, VNA Middlesex-East & Visiting Nurse Hospice, Wilmington Health Care, Winchester Hospital, Winchester Lifeline, Winchester Savings Bank, Windsor Place/Woodbriar, Woburn Council on Aging, Woburn Guild of Artists, Woburn Guild of Carvers, Woburn Historical Society, Woburn Police Department, Woburn Public Library, Woburn Veteran’s Services, and Youville Assisted Living Residences.

SourceWicked Local Woburn

A loan granted, a life grown smoother

July 26, 2012

A loan granted, a life grown smoother
By David Rattigan, Globe Correspondent

This is not about a wheelchair ramp, but about the change it can create.
“Prior to having the wheelchair ramp, Donald was basically housebound, because he wasn’t able to use his legs,” said Elizabeth Langosy, 62, of Medford, speaking about her husband and a modification they made to their home through a state low- and no-interest loan program.
The loan is part of the state’s Home Modification Loan program, which provides help to people requiring modifications to their home due to disability or age. Earlier this year, the program reached a milestone when it gave its 1,500th loan.
The Langosys were not the recipient of that particular loan, but are a good example of the change the program can make in people’s lives.
Donald, 64, is a painter whose work is featured in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts as well as The Fogg Museum, the oldest of Harvard University’s art museums.
He also has secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis, which means at different times, his legs go completely limp or stick out rigidly. Before the installation of the ramp, it was s struggle for Elizabeth, her two daughters, or a son-in-law to maneuver Donald out of the house and into the car.
“Often we would try to get him to a medical appointment, and I would just have to cancel it because we would be hours and hours late, no matter how early we started,” Elizabeth said. “It would also be difficult and humiliating for Donald, as we tried to bring him up and down the stairs of the house that way. And people are funny, too. People would just hurry by without offering to help. I think there’s a shyness in the world about disabled people.”
With the installation of the wheelchair ramp leading from the porch of the home they bought with their daughter’s family, leaving the house became as simple as wheeling him down the ramp. He’s signed up for The Ride, which provides transportation for those with disabilities, and also with the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at Mount Auburn Hospital, where caregivers helped him acquire a new, more versatile wheelchair.
“We’ve even gone for some walks around the neighborhood,” Elizabeth said. “He’s gone from being completely restricted and home all the time and having even a simple doctor’s appointment being almost impossible, to being more able to be more involved with the community, and his doctors.
“It’s made an enormous difference. I almost can’t put into words the how much of a difference it’s made to have that door opened for him.”
Ditto for the other changes the Langosys were able to make with the $30,000 loan, specifically modifications that transformed their closet-sized bathroom to something much improved for Donald’s needs.
“The bathroom is really a nice room now. It’s actually the nicest room in the house,” said Donald, possessor of a sly sense of humor. “When you come over, we can have cocktails in the shower.”
Donald and Elizabeth Langosy were able to open that door by using a no-interest loan from the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership, plus grants of $1,000 from Mystic Valley Elder Services and $2,000 from the MS Society.
“We have a survey people fill out at the end of their projects about their experience, and the glowing things that people say about how it’s changed their life is really rewarding,” said Susan Gillam, program and outreach coordinator for the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, which administers the Home Modification Loan Program statewide through six regional nonprofit housing organizations that work directly with consumers during the application process. North of Boston, those include the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership and Community Teamwork, Inc. of Lowell.
According to statistics provided by the corporation, through January, $33 million had been loaned through the program since 2000, to people in 227 of the state’s 351 cities and towns. Almost 80 percent of those have been no-interest loans, the average loan is slightly more than $22,000, and the money has gone to creating or altering 554 bathrooms and 575 ramps or lifts.
“With a relatively small dollar amount you can really have an impact,” said Karen Kelley Gill, the Community Economic Development agency’s deputy director and chief financial officer.
“It’s not the easiest thing to take advantage of, because there’s a lot of paperwork involved,” said Donald Langosy. “But when it happens, it’s fantastic. I’m just a humble painter, and my wife’s a writer, and we could have never made these changes in our life except for this program. It was a godsend.”
For more information, go to www.mass.gov/mrc/hmlp.
David Rattigan can be reached at Drattigan.globe@gmail.com.

SourceBoston Globe