A collaborative led by Boston Medical Center will receive $5 million from JPMorgan Chase as part of the bank’s efforts to support racial equity.
Boston was chosen as one of seven cities in JPMorgan Chase’s AdvancingCities Challenge, part of a $500 million, five-year initiative to help create greater economic opportunity in cities and advance inclusive growth.
A group known as the Boston Opportunity System Collaborative will receive the philanthropic investment. The $5 million will be used to fund 250 new and preserved affordable housing units in historically underinvested Boston neighborhoods, including Black and Latinx communities, and also to establish neighborhood-based training strategies for 1,100 residents of color, the bank said in a statement.
The Boston Opportunity System Collaborative consists of Boston Medical Center, the lead organization, and Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Health Resources in Action, the city of Boston and four community partners (the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, BlueHub Loan Fund, Action for Equity and Jewish Vocational Services).
The partnership is working to help Boston’s recovery efforts during the pandemic and address the needs of Black and Latinx communities, which have been disproportionately affected by both from the COVID-19 pandemic and generations of disinvestment.
The collaborative will focus on Boston’s neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan.
The three-year philanthropic commitment will allow the collaborative to invest in training for 1,100 individuals, placing at least 500 of them into full-time employment at living wages in the health care, tech and biotech industries. The collaborative will also create 100 affordable housing units and preserve another 150 affordable units.
“Safe, affordable housing and access to well-paying jobs are foundational to thriving communities, yet both are out of reach for many Bostonians,” Peter Scher, JP Morgan Chase’s head of corporate responsibility, said in a statement. “We’re proud to support the Boston Opportunity System Collaborative to help Boston’s underserved communities, particularly Black and Latinx residents, access affordable housing and get better-paying jobs as part of our commitment to drive an inclusive economic recovery and advance racial equity. Collaboration among business, local government, anchor institutions and community leaders is critical to break down barriers of economic mobility and create more opportunity for more people.”
JPMorgan Chase said it will support the BOS Collaborative as it shifts how institutions approach place-based hiring, purchasing and investing, to create opportunities for Boston’s Black and Latinx communities.
“The collaborative will deploy below-market rate capital to create affordable and permanent supportive housing, adopt new hiring and retention policies that connect residents to better paying jobs at the anchor institutions, and promote state and federal policies that help residents, such as increased state rental vouchers for tenants of acquired properties, or expanded Medicaid funding for onsite supportive services,” the bank said.
