Boston Officials Outline $26 Million For Affordable Housing Developments

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The city of Boston has allocated $26 million to fund affordable housing at 10 projects, Mayor Marty Walsh and city housing officials said on Wednesday at a news conference.

The slate of projects includes $18 million to create and preserve 515 affordable housing units and deed-restricted homes in Brighton, East Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan, Mission Hill, North End and Roxbury.

Sheila Dillon, the mayor's chief of housing, said an additional $5 million would be used to buy existing apartment buildings and permanently restrict them as affordable housing units. Furthermore, the new funding also calls for $3 million to assist with down payments for first-time homebuyers, Dillon said.

The development plans also listed the renovation of the Knights of Columbus headquarters in the North End, which would become a 23-unit affordable housing complex for the elderly. The building was sold to the city to create new housing for baby boomers who were priced out of the area and sought to return, Walsh said.

The majority of the 515 units in the development plans will be accessible to households that consist of a family of four who make $65,000 or less, housing officials said. The city will maintain the units at an affordable rate by restricting their rates for 50 years.

Mayor Walsh also emphasized that the new developments would contribute to the city's goal of creating nearly nearly 16,000 new affordable housing units by 2030, a goal set in a 2018 housing report. Since the launch of the plan, nearly 5,500 affordable housing units have been permitted, officials said.

Although the city and local partners have committed initial funding, officials said only the deed-restricted homes could begin development this year. The rest would need additional funding from the state’s housing authority, estimating that the other projects could not begin until next year at the earliest.

A list of the developments outlined Wednesday can be found here.