Massachusetts has awarded $7.2 million in federal and state low-income housing tax credits and subsidies to five neighborhoods north of Boston. The money will fund the construction of housing projects and will create about 400 jobs, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
Gov. Deval Patrick awarded about 21 communities throughout the state, including Chelsea, Lawrence, Salem, Revere and Tyngsborough, part of a $71.37 million grant to fund the development of 31 housing units.
The tax credits, which are sold to investors, are necessary to create affordable housing units in low-income areas where regular housing is expensive. The subsidies are loans that will be repaid at a later date.
“We cannot develop the housing without the state’s support,’’ said Ann Houston, the executive director of Chelsea Neighborhood Developers, an affordable housing development nonprofit organization, to the Globe. “It was absolutely critical that we have the state’s investment. It wouldn’t have happened without the funds.’
Chelsea Neighborhood Developers are organizing two housing projects in Chelsea and Revere. The Chelsea project received $720,000 in federal housing credits and $2,015,164 in Department of Housing and Community Development program subsidies to build a 32-unit Highland Terrace, according to The Boston Globe.
The Highland Terrace housing project will be built next to a park, Houston said, and construction should begin in June at an estimated cost of $10 million.
“It’s truly the heart of this new neighborhood,’’ she said. “In Chelsea, on average, people spend 59 percent of their income on housing. That’s pretty tough. This will allow us to ensure that we have a little more housing that’s affordable.’’
In Tyngsborough a 96-unit development in four buildings called Maple Ridge will receive $627,000 in federal tax credits and $171,150 in state issued low-income housing credits. The project will cost $24 million, said Stephen Kominski, the acquisition manager for developers Dakota Partners Inc. of Waltham, to The Boston Globe.
There is an “enormous waiting list,” Kominski said, for the low-income housing based at $500 for a two-bedroom unit. While other affordable units in Maple Ridge cost about $1,100 for a two-bedroom apartment.
“If people are paying too much rent, they don’t have enough money for clothes or food or transportation,’’ Houston said.
Too many people are paying too much for rent than is sensible, Houston said, and she is grateful for the tax credits project because without it the construction of cheap housing would not be possible.
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