Wu Awards $69M For Over 800 Units Of New Mixed-Income Housing
Mayor Michelle Wu awarded grants to build new mixed-income housing in nine neighborhoods, part of the administration's efforts to ease Boston's affordability crisis.
Speaking at coworking space and beer hall The Substation on Friday, Wu announced $69M in grants for 14 developers to build 826 new housing units, of which 775 will be income-restricted.
The grants were funded by sources including the Community Preservation Act, Boston's linkage program, private funding, and state and federal funding. All of the projects meet the city's zero-emissions building requirements.
"Rather than accept some of the false choices that are so often put out about stability or community or sustainability or affordability, Boston is really trying to show that we can make all of our dollars stretch when we partner and collaborate and do even more together," Wu said at the event.
The award winners include Pennrose, Planning Office of Urban Affairs, Arx Urban, the East Boston Community Development Corp., Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services, Trinity Financial and Boston Communities.
The projects are planned in Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Roslindale, Roxbury and Allston-Brighton.
The city has permitted 2,323 new income-restricted housing units in the last two years, Chief of Housing Sheila Dillon said, the most income-restricted housing permitted over that interval in the last 25 years.
"Sometimes you lose sight of what those numbers mean, but in this funding round, we're housing families, we're housing older adults, we're housing folks that have been homeless, we're housing our veterans," Dillon said.
One of the projects highlighted at the event was Arx Urban and Boston Communities' 4198 Washington St., a 31-unit, income-restricted development. Of these new units, 87% will be for those making no more than 60% of the area median income. The project will also include 4K SF of ground-floor retail.
"I celebrate because there's one more house in this area, there's one more affordable opportunity for a family in need," Boston Communities principal Phillip Cohen said. "One of the things we're doing is trying to create an open and transparent real estate development community and environment because we really are working together to create a more inclusive Boston."
Other projects include the Constitution Inn redevelopment, which consists of 100 affordable rental units in Charlestown, and Trinity Financial's 150 Centre St., a 72-unit affordable rental development in Dorchester. Both developers are being sued by the communities the projects were proposed in.
This is the Wu administration's latest effort to develop and preserve affordable housing across the city.
In 2022, through local and federal funding, the city spent $47M to acquire a 36-building East Boston portfolio from a joint venture between The Grossman Cos. and Hodara Real Estate Group. The acquisition came after Wu signed an executive order to streamline the city's affordable housing approval process.
