Saige on Fountain was built on a vacant lot in Roxbury’s Fort Hill neighborhood using, in part, money from the state’s CommonWealth Builder fund, which subsidizes creation of income-restricted home ownership units to help lower-income communities build generational wealth. Photo courtesy of Anton Grassi and Prellwitz Chilinski Assoc.

A critical financing source for affordable home ownership developments in Massachusetts is back in business.

MassHousing announced the latest $25 million funding round for CommonWealth Builder, which has awarded nearly $221 million since 2019 for 39 housing developments across the state.

Pre-application submissions are due Dec. 1, the agency announced last week.

Projects in the 26 Gateway Cities, Boston, Framingham and Randolph are eligible to apply, along with those in qualified census tracts elsewhere.

The subsidy provides forgivable subordinate construction loans for projects that reserve units for first-time home buying households earning 70 to 120 percent of area median income. Projects that have extensive site preparation or environmental clean-up costs also are eligible for up to $2 million per project.

After a previous funding round was exhausted early this year, some developers redesigned projects as all rental units to complete financing packages. Boston-based Asian Community Development Corp. and The Community Builders eliminated all 36 planned condominiums in their 290 Tremont St. project.

The program gives preference to projects requesting under $5 million, those that include clean energy and sustainable designs and those targeted at 70 percent of area median income.

In May, MassHousing awarded $9.9 million to Amherst Community Homes for a 30-unit condominium project reserved for first-time homebuyers.

A 2023 round of nearly $45 million was designated for projects totaling 220 units in Dorchester, Lowell, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury.