Mayor Michelle Wu and city officials meet with Welcome Home, Boston development teams designated by the City of Boston's Public Facilities Commission at City Hall on June 12, 2024. Photo by Isabel Leon | Courtesy of the city of Boston
Boston officials have tentatively designated the second set of development teams to create approximately 70 new homes on 15 city-owned parcels in Dorchester and Mattapan as the second phase of an effort to turn vacant city land into housing begins.
“’Welcome Home, Boston’ represents a transformative step towards making homeownership more accessible for our residents,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “As we work to make Boston a home for everyone, I’m thrilled to partner with these six development teams who embody the talent, diversity, and passion of our communities. Their work will help make Boston home for everyone, as we create much-needed home ownership opportunities in our neighborhoods and reshape the industry building them.”
Wu announced the first phase of the Welcome Home Boston Initiative in October 2023, with the first set of development teams working on permitting projects that will creating 72 homes on 12 city-owned parcels in Dorcester. The vacant land from the second set of parcels has been in the city of Boston’s inventory for more than 34 years, Wu’s office said in a statement. The properties were identified as underutilized through a citywide land audit in January 2022.
The six teams selected to develop the second set of parcels are Ambry Development, Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust/Co-Everything, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, KNG Realty Corp., KZ Builders LLC and Visionary Investors Building Equity/Mass Construction and Management Inc.
The new residences will be available to families with incomes below 80 percent and 100 percent of the area median income.
Additionally, state quasi-public housing finance agency MassHousing recently announced funding packages for three vacant city-owned lots that will create 55 new affordable homes that will be made available for purchase by first-time homebuyers.
The city selected three developers to transform these vacant lots into homeownership opportunities. DVM Housing Partners is constructing 30 new homes on Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan, DREAM Development is building 12 new homes at 24 Westminster Ave. in Roxbury and Urbanica is creating 13 new homes at 405 Washington St. in Dorchester.
MassHousing is contributing a total of $13.3 million in funding from the agency’s CommonWealth Builder Program to support the construction of the homes. The Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing also contributed $7.4 million in financial resources after making the lots available for development.
“Homeownership is a pathway to building generational wealth and achieving economic stability for families,” Boston’s Chief of Housing Sheila Dillon said in a statement. “We appreciate the collaboration with our partners including MassHousing, community members, and local developers to make these projects successful. We are proud to increase homeownership opportunities for Boston residents, and I am excited to see these projects move forward.”
