Community Housing CPA Success Stories

Sanderson Place Senior Housing in Sunderland

How a Small Town Dreamed Big with CPA to Address Affordable Housing Needs - Sunderland's Sanderson Place

It is always difficult for small towns to create new affordable housing opportunities, even with the availability of CPA funds. But the town of Sunderland is a perfect example of how a sustained local commitment to affordable housing can have incredible results. The recently completed Sanderson Place development was a nine-year-long journey that ultimately resulted in the creation of 33 units of affordable senior housing, located right in the historic town center - all because Sunderland could rely on their CPA program for the initial investment.

 

Billerica Affordable Housing "Triple Win"

CPA Collaboration in Billerica Allows for an Affordable Housing “Triple Win”

As is common throughout many suburban communities in the Commonwealth, the town of Billerica faces a huge task when it comes to the creation of new affordable housing. According to a recent survey conducted by Community Teamwork, housing was identified as the #1 need in Billerica. Thankfully, after the town adopted the Community Preservation Act in 2016, local housing advocates have had access to the flexibility and adaptability that CPA funding offers.

 

Boston First-Time Homebuyer Program

Boston Uses $5 Million in CPA Funds for Creative First-Time Homebuyer Program

Boston mayor Kim Janey announced that the City's Community Preservation Committee (CPC) awarded $5 million, for inclusion in the FY2021 funding round of the Community Preservation Act (CPA), to the Boston Home Center’s ONE+Boston First-Time Homebuyer Program. The ONE+Boston program gives income-qualified, first-time Boston homebuyers a greater ability to purchase a home in Boston by combining a discount on a low-interest rate mortgage product with down payment/closing assistance. The ONE+Boston program includes the City’s first affordable mortgage product to be created specifically for low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers who currently live in Boston. 

 

Oriole Landing in Lincoln

Oriole Landing in Lincoln: CPA Allowing Investment into Community Housing

For many CPA communities, especially those in suburban or rural areas, affordable housing can be a difficult CPA category to fund. But in the town of Lincoln, a public-private partnership has resulted in a huge win in both the community housing and historic preservation categories of CPA. And the development was structured with an unusual approach - a loan of CPA housing funds to the developer, all facilitated by the Lincoln Affordable Housing Trust.

 

City of Chelsea, Broadway at Night - Photo by Matt Frank

Chelsea CPC Appropriates Unprecedented $1.25 Million for CPA Rental Assistance

Several communities have been exploring CPA-funded rental assistance programs in order to keep residents in their homes during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. And some communities, such as the city of Chelsea, wasted no time in setting their CPA housing plans into motion. In the midst of the pandemic, the Chelsea Community Preservation Committee (CPC) made a unanimous decision to recommend an appropriation of $1.25 million to their Affordable Housing Trust Fund, specifically for an Emergency Housing Assistance Program.

Goshen Senior Housing

Goshen Senior Housing - What Small Towns Can Accomplish with CPA

In December 2018, residents from Goshen Senior Housing crossed the street to join about 30 others at Town Hall for the Council on Aging holiday lunch. The celebration gave MHP a chance to ask questions about the new senior housing. “Before, it was just a lot with an abandoned parsonage,” said former selectman Don Boisvert after changing out of the Santa suit he had worn to liven up the festivities. “Now, we have residents who are engaged in the community.”

Cape Cod Village

Cape Cod Village – Seven Towns Collaborating for a Regional Need

Nearly every community in Massachusetts is facing a shortage of housing, and this problem is especially true when it comes to housing for residents with special needs. Recognizing the effectiveness of a collaborative CPA effort, seven outer Cape Cod towns joined together to work on a regional CPA housing development to help an underserved population. This was the beginning of Cape Cod Village (CCV), a housing community for adults with autism.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity and CPA: Highlighting Successful Housing Partnerships

For many CPA communities, Habitat for Humanity is an invaluable partner when it comes to affordable housing goals. The global nonprofit works in nearly 1,400 communities across the United States, and in Massachusetts, many of their local efforts have been made possible through Community Preservation funds. To learn more about partnerning with Habitat, find your local chapter using this search function on the Habitat website.

Northborough Senior Housing

Northborough's Vacant Senior Center Becomes Housing For Senior Citizens

After a new senior center was built in Northborough, the previous building sat vacant. The Northborough Affordable Housing Corporation saw this as the perfect opportunity to invest CPA funds for housing designed for the community’s senior citizens.

Rolling Green Apartments

CPA-Funded Rolling Green Apartments Project “Huge Win” for Amherst

In the busy college town of Amherst, affordable housing is hard to come by. So when financing restrictions ensuring the affordability of 41 units at the Rolling Green apartment complex expired, residents of the complex began to worry. Soon enough, word came that the owner of the complex would be raising rents for these affordable units to match current Amherst market rates, levels that residents could not afford. However, thanks to the town’s commitment to retaining and broadening affordable housing options, and to its embrace of the CPA program, a $1.25 million contribution of CPA funds will allow the town to preserve the affordability of these threatened 41 units. 

Provincetown Housing

CPA Development Keeps Provincetown Affordable For Year-Round Residents

In a market driven by competitive vacation-based real estate, year-round Provincetown residents have long struggled to find affordable housing options. Despite million-dollar home prices, the average annual income for Provincetown residents dips just below the $50,000 mark.

Veterans' Housing

Fort Hill Veterans' Housing, Hingham

Finding housing for veterans has become a growing challenge in the Commonwealth. But one South Shore town is tapping their community preservation funds to make sure veterans have an affordable place to live. Hingham recently used $250,000 of its CPA budget to construct of six units of affordable supportive housing for veterans.

Eliakim's Way

Eliakim's Way, West Tisbury

West Tisbury, a small community on Martha’s Vineyard, has used its CPA funds to develop a number of affordable housing options for residents over the years, but its recent Eliakim’s Way project challenges the conventional wisdom on community housing.

89 Oxbow

89 Oxbow, Wayland

In a great example of beating swords into plowshares, land that once housed lethal missiles is now the location of an impressive green affordable housing development, funded in part by Wayland’s CPA program.

Lake Terrace Apartments

Lake Terrace Apartments, Chatham

This community housing project in Chatham was a joint project of the Chatham Community Preservation Committee, the Chatham Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod, and The Community Builders, Inc.

Pilot Grove

Pilot Grove Apartments, Stow

In the Pilot Grove Apartments project, Stow used $350,000 in CPA funds to provide funding to preserve the affordability restrictions on 37 apartments that were at risk due to expiring restrictions.