March 21, 2005
ROMNEY AWARDS $4.55M FOR FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER PROJECTS
70 new homes to be built in Worcester, Newburyport and Somerville
Homeownership opportunities in Massachusetts got a boost today as Governor Mitt Romney awarded $4.55 million in state funds to build 70 new homes for first-time homebuyers in the cities of Worcester, Somerville and Newburyport.
Fifty-one of the homes will be priced affordably for families earning 80 percent or less of the area median income as defined by the federal government.
“All hard-working families in the Commonwealth deserve a chance to be homeowners, but that has become increasingly difficult for many because we have some of the highest high housing costs in the nation,” said Romney.
“To alleviate that problem, I have pledged to increase our housing supply by doubling the number of housing starts in Massachusetts so that there are more affordable homes available to those across a broad range of incomes,” he added.
Of the $4.55 million award, $2.45 million comes from the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) Housing Stabilization Fund. The remaining $2.1 million comes from the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
The grants will be used to finance three developments in Worcester: the Cambridge Street condominium project, sponsored by the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corporation; the Crown Hill Housing Initiative, sponsored by Worcester Community Resources; and the Bell Hill Homeownership project sponsored by the Worcester East Side Community Development Corporation.
The awards will also help Trinity Financial to develop the Foundry project in Newburyport, and the Somerville Community Corporation to develop 65 Temple Street in Somerville.
The Housing Stabilization Fund (HSF) was created by the state in 1993 to support comprehensive neighborhood redevelopment efforts, and to help developers and municipalities acquire, preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing. The program places special emphasis on reusing foreclosed and distressed properties and on creating affordable homeownership opportunities.
Affordable Housing Trust Funds (AHFT) are targeted for projects that create or preserve housing throughout the state for households that do not exceed 110 percent of the area median income as defined by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. DHCD oversees the trust program and funds are administered by the quasi-public agency, MassHousing.
“Increasing the state’s supply of housing is a top priority of the Romney administration,” said DHCD Director Jane Wallis Gumble. “These two valuable state programs help us to do that with an emphasis on creating more affordable homeownership opportunities.”
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