Program Changes to Change Lives

 

Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP) is a state-funded loan program first enacted by the Legislature in 1999 to assist homeowners and small landlords finance home accessibility improvements. The program funds modifications such as ramps and lifts, hardwired alarm systems, fencing, bathroom and kitchen adaptations, and the creation of sensory spaces and accessory dwelling units. While HMLP has committed more than 2,700 loans and disbursed nearly $63 million to Massachusetts residents, its value can be best understood through real life stories of our borrowers.

Ron’s Story

HMLP beneficiary, Ronald Brown was placed in Seven Hills Foundation Shared Living Program by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services after the apartment where he resided for many years was found to be uninhabitable and condemned. He was unhappy with this change and had trouble coping at his first Shared Living placement. All of this changed one weekend in October 2016 when a short respite was needed and he came to stay with Githui Mwangi, a caregiver with Seven Hills Foundation Shared Living Program. Ron recalls that the weekend he moved in with Githui, who he affectionately calls “Mr. G”, was the one that changed his life.

The newly modified bathroom, which includes a zero-entry shower with grab bars for easier access and safety.

Before becoming a member of Mr. G’s household, Ron was overweight, required a walker, and on his way to needing to use a wheelchair full-time. When Githui realized his home wasn’t conducive to all of Ron’s mobility needs, he spoke with a caseworker who connected him with RCAP Solutions, the HMLP provider agency serving Central Massachusetts. HMLP helped Githui modify his home for Ron by adapting the bathroom to include a walk-in shower with grab bars. To ensure Ron could safely navigate getting into his home, which is located on a hill, HMLP funded a paved walkway that created a more gradual incline. The new walkway, which both men deem “a dream come true”, is Ron’s primary access point to his home. He also uses it as a form of physical therapy to get more exercise. Today, Ron no longer uses his walker and has lost over 60 pounds.

Githui had become a caregiver with Seven Hills Foundation Shared Living Program because “helping to care for those who need help has been ingrained” in him his entire life. With HMLP, he has been able to help Ron and both of their lives were changed. With these modifications and Mr. G’s support, Ron said, “for the first time I felt like I was home.”

Githui has encouraged other Shared Living caregivers to look to HMLP for their modification needs and plans to use the program to accommodate any other individuals that he plans to care for in the future. To help Ron, Githui borrowed the full loan amount then available through HMLP, which was $30,000. The recently announced HMLP program changes, which increase the maximum loan amount available by $20,000, will enable borrowers, like Githui, to address additional modification needs that were not possible with the previous loan limits.

Necessary Changes

CEDAC and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), who jointly administer HMLP, recently announced changes to the program. Homeowners who are income-eligible may now borrow up to $50,000, a significant increase to the program’s previous loan maximum. The second program change simplifies the terms of the HMLP loans offered. HMLP now offers no-interest, deferred payment loans to all income eligible households, replacing a schedule of interest rates that were based on multiple income tiers.

HMLP had not increased the maximum amount borrowers could access since 2008. Although the rate of increases varies, construction costs are rising throughout Massachusetts. These rising construction costs have made it particularly challenging for many HMLP borrowers to fund the full scope of modifications necessary for their household member. The recent increase reflects the program’s commitment to ensuring that the needs of these individuals and families are met, despite rising costs.

This increase in HMLP loan funds available to Massachusetts homeowners for home modifications is only valuable if residents are aware of this resource. While HMLP is undertaking its own outreach to help spread the word, we ask you for your help! If you work at a community based agency, do you need brochures for your waiting area? Would a staff training or information session for clients be helpful? Or maybe a simple article for your newsletter? If so, we’d welcome any opportunity to collaborate, so please be in touch.  Please visit cedac.org/hmlp or call 1-866-500-5599 for more information.

Borrower Profile: Casa Esperanza, Roxbury, Massachusetts

By profiling the work of a CEDAC borrower, we can see not only the evolution of the organization, but the evolution of the non-profit affordable housing sector in Massachusetts. Casa Esperanza is a great example that allows us to trace an inspiring chapter in the history of supportive housing for individuals and families impacted by addiction.

Casa Esperanza was founded in 1984 as a grassroots response to the rise of alcohol and substance addiction among some in the Latino community in Boston. Among the few treatment options available in the mid-1980s, there were no programs for native Spanish speakers. Founding director Ricardo “Ric” Quiroga spent the first few years acquiring city-owned land on Eustis Street in Roxbury and raising the funds to build a twenty-five bed treatment program for men. The men’s program was the first bilingual, bicultural residential treatment program in Massachusetts, based on 12-step treatment protocol and adapted to meet the needs of the Latino community. As new graduates left the six month program, many could not find affordable, sober housing to support their ongoing recovery. To address this housing gap, Casa Esperanza became a non-profit real estate developer.  Because this was its first foray into developing affordable housing, Casa Esperanza turned to CEDAC.

 

Addressing a Series of Challenges Through Supportive Housing

Beginning in 1989, CEDAC provided technical assistance and predevelopment funds to assist Casa in developing the Nueva Vida House, providing eight units of permanent supportive housing for treatment program graduates, located across the street from the men’s treatment program. Charleen Regan, Supportive Housing Program Manager from 1987 to 1999, worked closely with Ric and Nueva Vida became one of the first sober housing projects funded through the Housing Innovations Fund (HIF) program in 1991.

Next, Charleen and Ric worked to address Casa’s new programmatic challenge – providing residential treatment for women, including single mothers with young children. CEDAC provided predevelopment financing to cover the cost of designing the new building, and developing a feasible financing plan. Completed in 1995 and also funded through the HIF program, Latinas y Niños provides residential treatment for fourteen single women and up to seven mothers with children under ten years old. Prior to the opening of the program, many mothers could not enter residential treatment program and maintain custody of their children.

By 2001, Theresa Jordan – now Director of Children’s Facilities Financing for CEDAC’s affiliate, Children’s Investment Fund – began working with Casa Esperanza. Theresa worked with Ric and, later, then deputy director Emily Stewart to plan, design and close on the construction and permanent financing for Casa Familias Unidas, the agency’s most complex project yet. Casa Familias Unidas involved the expansion of the existing Nueva Vida House from eight to fifteen units, the development of two family units next door, and the construction of an outpatient clinic and community center called Familias Unidas across the street. The project was completed in 2006 and funded through HIF, the City of Boston, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (FHLB).

By the following year, Casa Esperanza had acquired another property on the same block to building fourteen more supportive housing units for single individuals in recovery. I began working with Emily on the project, which became Nueva Esperanza.  This project was completed in 2009 with HIF, state Affordable Housing Trust Fund, City of Boston funds and FHLB financing. Ric Quiroga retired in 2011 and deputy director Emily Stewart became the new executive director.

 

Providing Recovery Services and Supportive Housing in a Culturally Competent Setting

In an interview this month, Ms. Stewart explained what makes Casa Esperanza unique among Massachusetts agencies focused on serving individuals in recovery. The organization provides “culturally competent” care and services. As defined in a field report by The Commonwealth Fund, this phrase refers to “providers and organizations which effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients.” In keeping with the humility at the core of the organization’s mission and values, the executive director prefers the term “culturally specific.” Ms. Stewart explains: “Since culture is specific to individuals, we need to avoid making assumptions about culture, while attempting to address individuals’ cultural needs.” For a behavioral health organization like Casa Esperanza, the key is finding what supports each person’s health and wellness.

Under Emily Stewart’s leadership, Casa Esperanza has undertaken cutting-edge research to test and improve the efficacy of their recovery programs.  In direct response to the opioid epidemic, the organization opened up an intensive fourteen day residential post-detox program in Tewksbury to help participants focus on their recovery and develop individualized recovery paths. The bilingual, bicultural clinical stabilization program is funded by the Department of Public Health and third party insurers. The organization continues to operate on the vanguard of culturally specific substance abuse treatment and supportive housing for vulnerable individuals and families. CEDAC is proud of their decades-long involvement with inspiring leaders like Ric Quiroga and Emily Stewart and looks forward to Casa Esperanza’s next innovation in supportive housing and treatment for individuals in recovery.

Supporting Equitable Transit-Oriented Development

While it makes good planning sense to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) housing, there is also a need to ensure that the very households who most benefit from public transportation can afford to live in locations where it is easily accessible, that is, equitable transit-oriented development, or eTOD. Recently, the growing demand for TOD housing has been driving up property values near transit, making eTOD housing scarce. This market dynamic can contribute to the displacement of lower income residents in key transit locations.

The Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy at Northeastern University has researched the financial benefits of public transportation compared to reliance on personal vehicle ownership and found that for the typical American households, transportation costs are the second-largest expense after housing costs. For example, AAA’s 2017 report on the average cost of operating a medium sedan car nationally in 2017 was $8,171. While car ownership may not consume a significant portion of a wealthy household’s income, it can be financially unsustainable for lower income residents. Access to transit also opens up employment opportunities, further compounding its benefits. These factors raise concerns about equity in regards to access to public transportation.

Due to the high cost of car ownership, lower income households are more likely to use public transportation when it is accessible. In contrast, wealthier residents have more transportation options and may not choose to use transit even when it’s nearby. The health of our public transportation systems depends on high levels of ridership, and thus eTOD provides the double benefit of reducing travel costs for people who really need it, and ensuring there are enough transit consumers.

 

Fairmount Commuter Line

Recently, CEDAC has been excited to provide financial and technical assistance to several eTOD projects along the Fairmount commuter line. Near the Talbot Avenue station stop, Codman Square NDC is developing Talbot Commons. The project, which will be completed in two phases, will create 82 affordable rental apartments and transform the surrounding area. The first phase includes the preservation of 18 existing units and the production of 22 more on New England and Mallard Avenues and Norfolk Terrace and the second phase will create 42 rental units and 9,000 square feet of commercial space. CEDAC has supported both phases of the project, having committed $873,500 to date in predevelopment financing.

Just a few stops south, the eTOD project known as The Residences at Fairmount Station, is being developed through a partnership between Southwest Boston CDC and Traggorth Companies. CEDAC was an early supporter of this affordable housing development, committing nearly $1.3 million in acquisition and predevelopment financing starting as far back as 2012, and providing technical assistance to facilitate the developer partnership. In July, 2017, the partnership celebrated the construction start of The Residences at Fairmount Station which will create 27 affordable rental homes on five formerly vacant commercial properties adjacent to the MBTA’s Fairmount Avenue transit station.

In 2016, CEDAC entered into a participation agreement to support this Fairmount project with LISC Boston’s Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund (ETODAF). The ETODAF provides an additional layer of streamlined financing to support eTOD projects. CEDAC’s partnership with LISC was also used to supplement our support of two other eTOD projects:  Codman Square NDC’s Orlando-Waldeck development, and Harborlight Community Partners’ Granite Street Crossing project; the latter of which recently presented an award to neighbors for their open-minded support for new affordable housing in their Rockport neighborhood. We highlighted a number of these projects in a joint opinion piece in CommonWealth Magazine – “Transit equity has a housing component”.

A third eTOD/Fairmount Line project worth noting is Cote Village. The proposed project, which is being developed by Caribbean Integration Community Development in partnership with the Planning Office of Urban Affairs, will be located on a parcel of land that abuts the site of the future Blue Hill Avenue station stop on the Fairmount Line. The station is expected to open in spring 2019. Cote Village will create 76 units of mixed-income family housing and 2,000 square feet of commercial space. CEDAC recently committed $400,000 in predevelopment financing for the development of this project.

 

Planning Ahead

The expansion of transit lines typically take years of planning. While planning is underway, property values often start to escalate along the envisioned transit corridor. It is important to secure development sites for eTOD while opportunities exist.

Somerville Community Corporation’s (SCC) Union Square Apartments at 181 Washington Street is a great example of proactive eTOD. With the MBTA Green Line Extension project that will bring service beyond Lechmere Station to Union Square in Somerville and College Avenue in Medford, SCC developed a key transit-oriented site just a few blocks from the anticipated Green Line stop in Union Square. The property includes 35 affordable residential units and 2,400 square feet of commercial space on the ground level. CEDAC committed key early support for this initiative by providing $2.5 million in predevelopment and acquisition financing.

 

But the Green Line Extension isn’t the only project in the works. As the planning to expand and improve transit continues, we look forward to continuing to support the future initiatives of our non-profit community partners to ensure the development of eTOD housing. It’s important to remember that access to transit is an essential component of maintaining diverse communities that offer economic opportunities for all residents.

Wishing You a Happy New Year

Reflecting on the last twelve months, the housing and community development sector in Massachusetts has accomplished much in our efforts to build strong communities. We are proud of both CEDAC’s contributions and the work of our non-profit community partners.

These partners are the backbone of the Commonwealth’s robust community development sector and its achievements can be seen in such developments as the Pleasant Street revitalization in Northampton by Valley CDC, Way Finders, and the City; by the continuing efforts by Jackson Square Partners in the redevelopment of Jackson Square with completion of JPNDC’s 75 Amory Avenue, the development of 25 Amory Street, and Urban Edge’s progress on the community skating facility; by Mission Hill NHS’ One Gurney Street transit-oriented development project at Roxbury Crossing; and by the completion of Asian CDC’s 88 Hudson Street affordable homeownership project. These impactful projects are just a sampling of the impressive and productive efforts by our non-profit partners.

At the end of the year, we narrowly averted harmful provisions in the federal tax reform act that would have eviscerated the 4% housing tax credit, historic tax credit, and New Markets tax credit programs.  The final bill will still have a negative impact on the tax credit marketplace, along with looming spending cuts to discretionary domestic spending that will arise as a result of the significant budget deficits created by the legislation.

Looking ahead, 2018 will surely bring:

  • Innovative solutions to better serve our partners and communities, like the work we’ve been doing in Central Massachusetts, led by Lionel G. Romain, to support and provide a series of workshops to build the capacity of and increase housing production by Worcester CDCs.
  • The passage of the Housing Bond Bill by the state Legislature – which includes proposed reauthorizations for several vital capital programs including the state’s housing tax credits, Housing Innovations Fund (HIF), the Facilities Consolidation Fund (FCF) and the Community Based Housing (CBH) program, as well as the Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund (EEOST) and the Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP).
  • Continued effective relationships with our state housing, education, and health and human services agency partners, especially the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), and the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC).
  • The celebration of our 40th Stay tuned for more information on special events and celebrations.

As the year comes to an end and we make our New Year resolutions, CEDAC resolves to remain committed to the great people and organizations that comprise our community development sector and the community residents impacted by our work.

Happy New Year from all of us here at CEDAC!

The Tax Reform and Affordable Housing

Congress has approved the tax reform bill and it is anticipated that it will be signed into law by the end of the week, finishing a month of nail biting uncertainty regarding a number of fiscal issues, including several important affordable housing programs. The production and preservation of affordable housing is part of the country’s social safety net for low-income and extremely low-income families and individuals. While thankfully some key affordable housing programs were spared in the final version of the bill, the tax bill presents a worrisome outcome, especially for advocates of those living in poverty and in stemming income inequality in this country.

Impact on Housing & Community Development

We housers can at least breathe a big sigh of relief that several critical affordable housing and community development programs were spared the axe. The original House bill would have eliminated private activity bonds (PABs) that generate 4% housing tax credits along with historic tax credits and new market credits. As I described in “Preserving Affordable Housing in Massachusetts with Private Activity Bonds and 4% Tax Credits”, a 2015 CEDAC paper. PABs and 4% credits are linked funding programs that are used to produce or preserve roughly 3,000 affordable apartments each year in Massachusetts. Historic tax credits and new markets tax credits are also used for financing affordable housing but are more associated with community development projects, particularly in the urban core neighborhoods. We are in debt to a whole host of housing advocates who did a tremendous amount of outreach to their elected federal legislators in support of these three tax credit programs.

Wealth Inequality & Vulnerable Populations

So affordable housing dodged a bullet but looking more broadly this is a concerning piece of legislation, especially for vulnerable populations – many of which our borrowers and community partners serve.  While there are many winners and losers in the 429 pages of bill text, the biggest impacts will be to wealth inequality and the safety net. The bill will reduce federal tax revenue by $1.5 trillion over 10 years and by far the biggest beneficiaries are corporations and the wealthiest individuals. One study estimates that the richest 1% of earners will receive 64% of the bill’s benefits. Today the top 1% receives a whopping 20% of the nation’s income which has doubled from just over 10% in the 1970’s. This inequality will likely skew further in the coming years and could bring increased social problems.

Another result is even more likely – attacks on the safety net for low-income people.  By starving the federal government of revenue, annual budget deficits are all but certain to increase fairly substantially.  There are those on the federal level who will likely use concerns about the deficits to cut much-needed programs that help the poor. Further cuts to the social safety net will impact many of the populations that are served by non-profit affordable housing developers – including formerly homeless families, veterans struggling with PTSD, disabled men and women, seniors, children, and others.

Affordable housing production has been threatened on the national level before. Massachusetts is fortunate in that state officials in the executive and legislative branches have made a long-term commitment to preserving and producing affordable housing units. The Baker/Polito Administration, for instance, has included resources for affordable housing in their five year capital plan and within the legislature; the pending Housing Bond Bill will also provide capital financing for many worthwhile developments. The federal programs that many of our partners utilize for their projects were protected, but we can anticipate that advocates will need to continue to make their voices heard at every level of government to ensure that truly vulnerable populations will still have adequate housing and needed services.

Despite the uncertainty, here at CEDAC we remain committed to our mission of strengthening Massachusetts’ communities.

CEDAC: A LEADER IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING PRESERVATION

Today’s guest blog is from Vince O’Donnell, who was CEDAC’s Director of Development from 1986 to 2001. During that time, he played a major role in CEDAC’s emergence as a significant driver of the affordable housing preservation mission in Massachusetts. For over 45 years, he has worked with nonprofits, resident organizations and governmental agencies in his affordable housing work. 

When people think of CEDAC’s many areas of leadership, one issue that comes to mind is the preservation of affordable housing. This engagement goes back to 1981, shortly after Carl Sussman, CEDAC’s first executive director, hired Mike Gondek from a Boston CDC, initiating an important move into the overall field of housing. At that time, Emily Achtenberg, Ann Silverman and I were working in a CHAPA-initiated demonstration program to implement some important new mandates affecting how HUD must address failed subsidized multifamily housing.

This mandate, brought about by U.S. Senator Ed Brooke at the behest of at-risk tenants of Methunion Manor in Boston’s South End, was practically speaking the federal government’s first affordable housing preservation program – a response to a crisis that at the time had left HUD as Boston’s biggest landlord. When CHAPA’s grant was spent down, we approached Mike to ask if CEDAC would continue supporting several nascent purchases of affordable housing complexes by resident organizations, including the Methunion Manor tenants who had pushed for the federal preservation mandate. The City of Boston had already been following the issue of failed subsidized housing, but with CEDAC’s entry to the field, there was now a potential for deep collaboration between state, local and federal government on a critically important housing issue.

That multi-level intergovernmental partnership has continued to this day. Every governor since Michael Dukakis, and every mayor of Boston since Kevin White, has worked with CEDAC to make preservation a priority. I think this is what gives me the most pride in CEDAC’s work in this field. Over time the organization has developed expertise in a technical discipline that’s not for the faint of heart. CEDAC’s understanding of the issues resulted in a readiness to deal with tough problems; its practical experience underpinned its ability to take measured risks in spaces where others might be unwilling; it earned credibility in the policy arena; and all this supported the allocation of resources for everything from predevelopment to technical assistance to gap financing to major federal funding.

 

Preservation for the People

But, wait, there’s more – not only is CEDAC a proven honest broker in a complex and changing intergovernmental space, it has also earned the trust of resident organizations and housing advocates. Carl Sussman’s blog post from October 4th, Looking Back at Our Foundation, described Mel King’s call to “do the right thing” – in its preservation work, CEDAC has always stayed true to that mandate. Yes, preservation is difficult, requiring detailed regulatory solutions, complex financing and careful balancing of public and private interests. But the bottom line for CEDAC has always been about justice for the residents, who deserve a decent, affordable place to live.

Some specific accomplishments include:

  • Actively facilitating the preservation of thousands of units of at-risk affordable housing, primarily through community-based non-profits and resident organizations: One early example was Clarendon Hill Towers in Somerville, a 500 unit affordable housing property whose New York-based owner was positioned to deregulate the housing by prepaying its HUD-subsidized mortgage in 1991. The residents approached CEDAC with their concerns, and together CEDAC and the Clarendon Hill Towers Tenant Association, began a three year process that culminated in CHTTA’s formation of a resident-controlled nonprofit that purchased the property for substantial rehabilitation and long-term affordability. One important lesson learned from CEDAC’s work with CHTTA and other multifamily resident ownership organizations is that sustained support for capacity is a key to success, as are the binding affordability covenants that these mission-oriented purchasers have put in place.
  • The state’s first preservation database, identifying the next challenge to subsidized multifamily housing after the foreclosure crisis, and sending the alarm to state and local officials, and project residents: a wave of “expiring use restrictions” beginning in the late 80s allowing the deregulation of much of the older assisted stock after twenty years of service. This database keeps track of expiring use developments across the Commonwealth, and has formed the basis of the “early warning” system that Massachusetts uses to help preserve affordable housing projects.
  • Contributions to the passage of federal legislation critical to the expiring use problem (the Low Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act, or LIHPRHA), which fueled CEDAC’s preservation work, including extensive support for resident and nonprofit purchases;
  • Advocacy for the passage of federal legislation for the renewal of expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, including new Section 8 rents that were “marked up to market”. This enabled CEDAC to design transactions to bring in federal resources that were matched to the size of the problem of rapidly rising rents.
  • A key role in implementing the state’s Chapter 40T preservation statute, which creates transparency in the market for assisted multifamily housing properties. See “Chapter 40T at 5: A Retrospective Assessment of Massachusetts’ Expiring Use Preservation Law” to learn more about the law’s accomplishments.

 

The Partnerships of Public Agencies

Another reason for the success of CEDAC’s preservation mission is the depth of its partnerships with other public agencies. As early as 1986, CEDAC alerted the Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development (now the Department of Housing and Community Development, DHCD) to the looming expiring use issue, and to the importance of HUD resources in addressing a problem of this scale. CEDAC, DHCD, and HUD, along with the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, have never stopped collaborating since then. MassHousing, as an early stakeholder in the creation of much of the Commonwealth’s affordable multifamily housing portfolio, has been integral to creating new preservation solutions.  Other funding, technical assistance and essential advocacy have been available through the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, MassDevelopment, Metro Housing Boston (formerly, MBHP) and Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), as well as resident groups and their support organizations.

CEDAC has unique attributes – it’s a quasi-public agency with a strong mission and enough operational flexibility to tackle tough problems; its board and staff have top-level capacity; and it has earned the trust of a wide array of stakeholders. All this informs everything CEDAC does, and has been essential to its nationally-recognized leadership in affordable housing preservation.

 

The photograph featured in this piece shows the project team that worked on preservation of Clarendon Hill Towers during a meeting with former Governor Dukakis to ask for state support for the deal. Among photographed is Vince himself (far right).

 

Looking to the West: Pleasant Street, Northampton

At CEDAC, we are committed to strengthening communities around the Commonwealth. While there are many examples that fit the bill, we want to highlight two separate affordable housing developments on the same important block in Northampton because of the significant role that they play in the revitalization of an important section of the City.

The City of Northampton has spent the last four years developing a plan to revitalize the Pleasant Street Corridor, a stretch that has been identified as an important gateway to downtown Northampton. With the goal of transforming Pleasant Street from a state highway into a city street that serves the needs of residents and local business, and meeting the city’s growth plans, the master plan called for infrastructure improvements including new raised crosswalks, curb extensions, improved bicycle and pedestrian paths, the addition of on-street parking, landscaping, and a new rotary that will provide some separation between the highway and the main city street.

 

Live 155 & The Lumber Yard

Rendering of The Lumber Yards Apartments courtesy of Valley CDC and Davis Square Architects
Rendering of The Lumber Yards Apartments on Pleasant Street

Valley CDC’s The Lumber Yard Apartments and Way Finders’ Live 155 will create much needed affordable housing in the area and are considered a cornerstone of the revitalization efforts. Together these two developments will create 125 units of rental housing and over 8,000 square feet of commercial space.

The Lumber Yard Apartments will break ground next month and is scheduled to be completed and occupied by January 2019. The 55-unit mixed-use development is located on the site of the former Northampton Lumber and will provide housing for low- and moderate-income families and individuals. Located directly across the street is Way Finders’ Live 155 development, which will include 70 mixed-income studio and one-bedroom apartments, to be completed by spring 2018. Way Finders will provide supportive services to residents through the City’s Veterans Services Department, ServiceNet, and Center for Human Development.

Both sites are close to transportation, including Amtrak and bus stations, which will give residents easy access to transit options for work. It is anticipated that these projects will spur further development in this corridor.

Rendering of Live 155 courtesy of Way Finders and PFRA+LDa

 

Investing in the Vision

The idea of further development isn’t farfetched, especially with the amount of support these projects have seen. CEDAC committed $4.5 million in predevelopment and acquisition financing for the two developments early on. This includes over 1.4 million in capital resources from HomeFunders, a consortium of local philanthropies who have joined together to create permanent housing for homeless families. Since, both have received incredible support from the City of Northampton and the Commonwealth. The revitalization of the Pleasant Street Corridor is truly a model for collaboration between private investors and the public sector.

Last year, the State’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development  awarded a $2.5 million MassWorks grant for the infrastructure improvements along Pleasant Street as called for in the City’s master plan. This commitment was one of the state’s largest infrastructure investments of 2016.  The city and Smith College also partnered with Valley CDC on The Lumber Yard Apartments, collectively contributing $600,000 in grants to the project. In addition to state and federal low-income housing tax credits and rental housing subsidies from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), combined, Live 155 and The Lumber Yard Apartments received more than $3.5 million through the DHCD’s housing state bond programs including HIF, FCF, CBH, and HPSTF.

CEDAC is fortunate to be collaborating with effective non-profit community development organizations like Valley CDC and Way Finders on projects with the dramatic impacts of Live 155 and The Lumber Yards Apartments from a very early stage. It’s exciting to see this scale of investment, especially in a community outside of the metro Boston area. We look forward to participating in Pleasant Street’s transformation from a state thruway to a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood serving families and businesses in western Massachusetts.

 

Featured image courtesy of the City of Northampton.

MACDC – 35 Years of Strengthening Community Development Together

On Friday, November 17th, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) will celebrate its 35th anniversary at an event in Boston. MACDC represents the Commonwealth’s mission-driven non-profit community development organizations, who are “dedicated to working together and with others to create places of opportunity where people of diverse incomes and backgrounds access housing that is affordable, benefit from economic opportunities and fully participate in the civic life of their community.” MACDC provides the non-profit community development sector with capacity building opportunities and advocates for its needs at the municipal, state, and federal levels.

The organization has been a key, longstanding partner in CEDAC’s work over the past several decades. Community development corporations (CDCs) are the backbone of non-profit affordable housing and community development in Massachusetts, so it is no surprise that CEDAC has forged a collaborative partnership with MACDC to ensure that CDCs have the resources they need to build stronger, more equitable neighborhoods across the state. You can read more about our relationship with Massachusetts’ CDCs here.

Over the past 35 years, CEDAC and MACDC have worked together on a range of policies and programs. Below, we present just a few of the highlights of this fruitful partnership:

  1.  CDC project support – Over the past several decades, CEDAC has provided both technical assistance and pre-development lending to almost all of the 92 CDCs throughout Massachusetts, helping those organizations move their development projects from the concept stage to occupancy and completion.
  2. Workforce development – In the 1990s, CEDAC and MACDC partnered on a community economic development training program that helped accelerate CDC involvement in workforce development, small business development and other economic development activity. That workforce training program eventually grew into the Commonwealth Workforce Coalition (CWC). For 14 years, CEDAC managed the CWC program, which provides trainings and professional development opportunities for the Commonwealth’s workforce development community, including the annual Sharing Skills~Building Connections conference. Last year, UMass Boston’s Center for Social Policy began administering CWC.
  3. The Mel King Institute for Community Building (MKI) – The Mel King Institute for Community Building was founded in 2009 to advance skills, knowledge and leadership ability among those who work in community development. MACDC co-administers MKI with LISC Boston, and CEDAC has been a core partner since its founding. Sara Barcan, our Director of Housing Development, has served on the MKI Steering Committee since inception.
  4. Housing Preservation – CEDAC and MACDC have a longstanding partnership to maximize the long-term preservation of existing affordable housing. We have worked together to craft affordable housing state policy, including the state’s affordable housing preservation law, Chapter 40T, which was enacted in 2009. And we have collaborated to provide on-going training and technical assistance to help CDCs acquire and preserve at-risk properties.
  5. Supportive Housing – As CDCs throughout Massachusetts have undertaken projects to increase the production of housing to families and individuals with special service needs, CEDAC has provided technical assistance and funding to them and other non-profit organizations looking to build supportive housing units. CEDAC administers three supportive housing programs on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – the Housing Innovations Fund (HIF), the Facilities Consolidation Fund (FCF), and the Community-Based Housing (CBH) program. All three, along with two additional initiatives that CEDAC manages – the Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP) and the Early Education and Out of School Time (EEOST) Capital Fund – are currently up for reauthorization by the Legislature as part of the Housing Bond Bill.

Congratulations to the MACDC Board and staff, as well as all of the member organizations! We are looking forward to celebrating MACDC’s 35th anniversary on November 17th – and to many more years of working together to create stronger neighborhoods throughout Massachusetts.

The Challenges of Facility Improvement Projects

The business of providing care to young children can be very challenging. Child care directors of early education and care (ECE) and out-of-school time (OST) centers are required to balance multiple and complex responsibilities as administrators, fundraisers, facility managers, educators, and advocates often at the same time. Many programs are located in spaces and buildings not originally designed for licensed childcare, which creates another set of challenges. The prospect of moving locations, renovating a facility, or building a new center can be daunting and seemingly impossible. Most child care staff have never undertaken a major facility improvement project, making it hard for them to know where to begin.

Through our annual Facility Needs Assessment survey (most recently conducted this September), we found that more than 40 non-profit ECE and OST programs across Massachusetts are beginning to plan a significant renovation or new construction project. These programs collectively serve 4,500 children. Our mission is to support the creation of high-quality educational spaces for children to learn and develop. These spaces are key to organizational success and longevity for ECE and OST organizations.

 

A Unique Training Opportunity

In 2002, Children’s Investment Fund (the Fund) created the Building Stronger Centers (BSC) Training Institute – an intensive, week-long training to provide child care center directors, staff and board members the resources to tackle their projects. BSC was designed to build the capacity of center-based ECE and OST programs to plan and implement facility improvement projects. The four-day training covers all phases of the development process and provides access to highly-skilled consultants, architects, and financing experts. Support from the Klarman Family Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and others, has permitted the Fund to train 106 organizations serving over 11,000 children.

BSC provides organizations with a crucial knowledge base, a network of colleagues, and the opportunity to connect with consultants that have expertise in creating high quality ECE and OST settings. After centers participate in BSC, the Fund offers additional training opportunities, project-specific technical assistance, and access to early-stage and long-term financing. Organizations have found BSC to be a catalyst for advancing their facility projects. Eleven out of the state’s 21 Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund (EEOST) grantees to date have attended BSC.

 

Lessons Learned

As we plan for our 10th BSC session in May 2018, we reflect on some of the key points from the training. The top four “lessons learned” for providers undertaking a major facility improvement project are:

  1. Assess your organization’s financial and managerial capacity to develop a facility project. Why undertake a facilities project? What are you trying to achieve? How will a new or improved facility impact your current and future operations? Are you able to support debt or develop a successful capital fundraising strategy? These are some of the questions organizations must ask themselves early in the process.
  2. Use professional consultants. ECE and OST directors are accustomed to addressing facility issues with little-to-no use of external resources. We strongly emphasize building an experienced team of consultants including an architect, project manager and/or development consultant.
  3. The Fund has resources to help pay for consultants. ECE and OST organizations serving low-income children tend to shy away from debt. But the most successful organizations have invested in conceptual planning and predevelopment work before beginning renovation or construction projects. These costs can be significant but necessary to laying the groundwork for a successful project and the Fund can help support providers who need to incur these costs.
  4. Involve your staff, Board members, and other stakeholders. Leadership is key and directors cannot do it alone. It’s important to generate support inside and outside your organization. Get your Board to become champions for the project. Have them attend trainings like BSC. Also,  make sure you engage your staff for their input and vision for the new space.

 

Facility improvement projects are difficult, time consuming, and costly. But they are also transformative for organizations and the children they serve. Resources like the Fund, organizations that have already completed successful projects, and consultants with expertise in ECE and OST are here to help. As one BSC participant commented, “I have been inspired and motivated to do things I never would have considered before. My whole set of expectations, assumptions, and beliefs have been dramatically shifted. I now have a clear picture of where my program should be going.”

Did You Know: Home Modification Loan Program Can Benefit Individuals with Autism and Dementia?

Established by the State Legislature in 1999, Home Modification Loan Program (HMLP) is a lending program that finances housing adaptations or modifications to improve accessibility for seniors and individuals with disabilities. These modifications allow the household member to live more independently in the community. CEDAC works in cooperation with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to administer the program, and six non-profit regional Provider Agencies work directly with applicants (visit cedac.org/hmlp to learn more about the application process).

 

More than Physical Disabilities

People most often associate disabilities with just physical limitations. The Center for Disease Control’s Disability and Health Data System 2014 profile of Massachusetts reports 22.5% of adults in Massachusetts have a disability. However, when breaking down this snapshot further, just over half (12.3%) of these Massachusetts adults have a cognitive disability. Though HMLP is most commonly used to fund the addition of ramps and lifts, kitchen and bathroom modifications, and the widening of doorways, there are also necessary modifications that benefit persons with cognitive disabilities.

In 2008, the housing community recognized the needs of this population and expanded the scope of HMLP to allow for people with cognitive and neurological limitations to benefit from the program. Since then, we have funded changes that ensure a safer environment, including the installation of a hard-wired alarm system for doors and windows to aide in preventing the household member from wandering away from home. Some applicants have also focused their efforts on ensuring the kitchen is a safer environment by installing locked cabinets, modifying the oven or removing a gas stove. The program has had a substantial impact on the families as well as the individual benefiting from the modification, including families with children on the autism spectrum.

 

HMLP and Autism

The Center for Disease Control reports about 1 in 68 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder in the United States. According to the Children with Special Health Care Needs Program survey in 2016, 17.3% of Massachusetts children with special health care needs between the ages of 2 and 17 have developmental delays. HMLP has assisted families ensure greater safety for these children’s spaces by providing funding for fencing to prevent bolting or wandering away from home, installation of special drainage in the bathroom or replacing windows with special break and shatter resistant windows. The program has also assisted these families with creating a sensory space, designed to help individuals develop and engage their senses and work on sensory integration therapy or strategies to address behavioral issues. Often modifications such as these can make all the difference in keeping a family member at home as opposed to relocating them to a more costly long-term health care facility or alternative group housing.

 

Accessory Dwelling Units

Recently we’ve worked closely with state partners and the autism community to stress how the program can be used to create accessory dwelling units, which often times allow multiple generations to live in closer proximity to one another, but still maintain independence. The creation of this type of living space is important for households with any disability.

The Home Modification Loan Program remains a dynamic program and continues to evolve and adjust to the needs of Massachusetts residents who have a household member with complex medical needs. The program is up for reauthorization in the Housing Bond Bill, and, through discussions with state partners, the program is poised to make some additional adjustments to better serve disabled residents of Massachusetts. Stay tuned!

 

The photo above is courtesy of Colin’s family. In the spring of 2015, HMLP funded the conversion a three season porch into a therapy room for Colin. Colin’s parents saw improvements in his behaviors after just a few weeks.