Today, we announce that CEDAC recently committed $625,000 in predevelopment financing to 872 Morton Street Village in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood. Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. (POUA) and the Caribbean Integration Community Development (CICD) will create 40 units of mixed-income family housing, with 31 rental units and nine affordable homeownership units. This transit-oriented development will include 30 parking spaces, 1,000 square feet of shared community space, and an 8,000 square-foot serenity garden in memory of Steven P. Odom, a 13-year-old gun violence victim from Dorchester.
872 Morton Street Village represents a unique partnership between a high-capacity housing developer – in this case, POUA – and CICD, a new, emerging BIPOC-led community development corporation (CDC) that serves underrepresented communities. This joint venture supports equitable community development by providing CICD with the financial and technical expertise necessary to increase organizational capacity and advance their project in Mattapan, a diverse Boston neighborhood with a significant population of Haitians, Caribbean immigrants, and African Americans. The project, which will provide residents with wealth building and financial self-sufficiency opportunities, is an example of how affordable housing development can advance racial equity.
“The Planning Office for Urban Affairs (‘POUA’) is a non-profit housing developer affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, and our mission is to serve as a catalyst for social justice through our work in housing development and neighborhood revitalization. Since 1969, POUA has developed over 3,000 units of affordable and mixed-income housing, and we are currently working with Caribbean Integration Community Development (‘CICD’) on three developments in Mattapan, one of which is Morton Station Village,” explained POUA’s president Bill Grogan.
“Morton Station Village is a 40-unit transit-oriented development that will create opportunities for wealth and equity building through a combination of rental and homeownership housing and will be constructed adjacent to a new public park—the Steven P. Odom Serenity Garden. POUA has worked with CICD and the community to maximize the number of affordable homeownership units in recognition of the long-standing goal to provide opportunities for families to build wealth and equity through real estate,” said Grogan. “In addition to the affordable homeownership units, Morton Station Village will provide much needed rental housing that is affordable to a diverse range of households, with incomes from 30% AMI to 100% AMI. By re-activating a long-vacant site, Morton Station Village will serve an important community need by providing a range of new, affordable, and mixed-income rental and homeownership opportunities, community space and publicly accessible open space.”
“CICD is extremely grateful to CEDAC for the financing of 872 Morton Street Village, said CICD’s president Donald Alexis. “We are so excited that this development will advance our critical work in homeownership for Mattapan. Homeownership, which has been out of reach for so many in Mattapan, is a building block of economic stability. This development will not only put roofs over the heads of those who struggle with homelessness or near-homelessness every day; it will put individuals and families on a path to fiscal health and independence.”
