Community-based development groups in Massachusetts created or preserved 2,675 homes and more than 4,500 jobs during the last two years, according to the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
MACDC, a group that represents 65 community-based groups throughout the state, unveiled the preliminary results of a two-year campaign to revitalize Bay State communities last Wednesday as it pushed lawmakers to approve more funding for affordable housing and community development initiatives.
Launched in 2002, the campaign called for community groups across the state to create or preserve 3,000 homes and 5,000 jobs, start or expand 1,500 locally owned businesses and attract $400 million in private and public investment to Massachusetts communities.
Community groups exceeded their goals in some categories, attracting $432 million in private and public investment to communities and starting or expanding more than 2,200 locally owned businesses. The groups fell slightly short of meeting their goals for housing and jobs, reaching roughly 90 percent of their targets in both categories.
Housing production, however, increased from about 1,080 units created in 2003 to 1,600 last year. MACDC President Joseph Kriesberg attributed the jump in numbers to the completion of several large housing developments. Those include The Metropolitan, a 251-unit development in Chinatown developed by EA Fish Assoc. in partnership with the Asian CDC; and the first phase of Maverick Gardens, a former public housing project in East Boston that’s being redeveloped by the Boston Housing Authority, the East Boston CDC and Trinity Financial.
“I think to a certain degree, it is the [result of the] natural ebb and flow of real estate development,” he said.
Kriesberg anticipates that housing production will ease in the next two years. “I think ’04 will be a record year,” he said.
But Kriesberg said community development corporations, or CDCs, will continue to increase housing production by partnering with private developers, doing more mixed-income housing development and acquiring occupied rental properties and preserving their affordability.
Leaders of CDCs were at the State House last week asking legislative leaders to boost funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund from $20 million to $50 million annually. Funds from the trust are used to develop low-cost housing, renovate state-assisted public housing and provide loans for projects prior to construction.
Created in 2001, the fund was originally supposed to receive $20 million for five years, but has received $52.5 million in the first three years of its existence. In fiscal year 2004, funding for the trust was shifted to the capital budget, with $70 million authorized. The state spent $20 million annually during the last two years, which means the fund money will be used by the end of this legislative session. Last Tuesday, a legislative committee recommended allocating $100 million over five years for the trust fund.
In addition to the asking for more funds for the housing trust, CDC leaders urged lawmakers last week to provide $30 million of new funding to recapitalize the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, which has helped developers and municipalities to clean up contaminated land and reuse it for a variety of purposes, including housing.
Information from the State House News Services was included in this story.
