MassHousing recently closed on $34.4 million in financing for the Franklin Highlands community in Roxbury and Dorchester.

The deal will extend affordability at the 270-unit community by 20 years, and allow the Franklin Park Development Tenants Association to launch major renovations across the property.

“We are very pleased to complete this transaction with Maloney Properties and the Franklin Park Development Tenants Association,” MassHousing Executive Director Tim Sullivan said in a statement. “MassHousing is committed to creating quality affordable housing opportunities for the residents of Massachusetts, and this refinancing advances that mission by unlocking an extensive property modernization, and extending long-term housing affordability for hundreds of lower-income families in Dorchester and Roxbury.”

Franklin Highlands is comprised of 14, 4-story apartment buildings, located in a 10-block area near Franklin Park. Maloney Development LLC and the Franklin Park Development Tenants Assoc. will undertake $32 million in extended property renovations including: extensive masonry repairs to exterior walls, new roofs, repairing and replacing windows, upgrading HVAC and electrical systems, expanding a community center and making general interior improvements.

Franklin Highlands dates to 1900 and was rehabilitated in 2000 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Demonstration Disposition Program – or “Demo-Dispo’’ – which was administered in Massachusetts by MassHousing. There are 101 one-bedroom apartments, 104 two-bedroom apartments, 53 three-bedroom apartments and 12 four-bedroom apartments.

“We have fought long and hard for the Franklin Highlands Apartments for nearly 25 years,” Patricia Mayo, president of the Franklin Park Tenants Development Assoc., said in a statement. “When given the opportunity to participate in Demo-Dispo with the goal of owning our property, the Tenants Association stayed true and kept our eyes on the prize. We collaborated with our partners at Maloney and MassHousing, and over the last several years have worked to renovate the property so it can thrive well into the future.”

MassHousing has financed 49 rental housing communities in Dorchester and Roxbury totaling 5,710 housing units and $455.2 million in original financing.