Blue Hills Bank has received a 2012 HomeSafe Award from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership in recognition of the bank’s efforts to originate loans for first-time homebuyers using the Partnership’s SoftSecond Loan Program.

Blue Hills Bank was one of the program’s top lenders among community banks, completing 18 loans to low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers in Boston.

"Blue Hills Bank has done an outstanding job helping lower-income and minority first-time homebuyers fulfill their dream of homeownership," said Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, in a statement. "Blue Hills’ support of SoftSecond has not only helped first-time homebuyers, it has helped promote owner-occupied homeownership and neighborhood stabilization, especially in areas hard-hit by foreclosure."

Created in 1991, the SoftSecond program is aimed at first-time homebuyers who make less than the area median income, providing low fixed-rate financing and subsidized mortgage insurance to borrowers while requiring them to complete rigorous pre-purchase education and providing post-purchase services to help them avoid foreclosure.

The average total household income of the homebuyers that received SoftSecond financing through Blue Hills was $57,000. Blue Hills financed the purchase of eight condominiums, eight single-family homes and two two-family homes.