It’s no surprise that as the weather turns warmer and sunnier, we get a chance to join our non-profit community development partners to celebrate milestone events in the project development process. But it is always gratifying to attend groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies and see these affordable housing, supportive housing, and child care projects go from ideas into reality. It provides an opportunity to acknowledge the hard work that the developer and its team, public and private funders, and community residents devote to the effort.
Over the last month, we’ve had a lot to celebrate across the Commonwealth. Below, we list several important projects we’ve seen break ground or open:
- Live 155, WayFinders, Northampton – WayFinders’ Live 155, which will bring 70 mixed-income units and ground floor commercial space to the City of Northampton, opened on April 26th. Along with the nearby Lumber Yard Apartments, Live 155 is transforming the gateway into downtown Northampton while providing much needed transit-oriented housing to that part of Western Massachusetts. You can read more about CEDAC’s work supporting Live 155 here and here.
- YWCA Southeastern Massachusetts, New Bedford – On April 27th, CEDAC and Children’s Investment Fund (the Fund) celebrated the groundbreaking for that organization’s new project, which co-locates supportive housing for women and its child care facility. The 6,500 square foot, two-story building will serve 50 children and provide 8 units of housing for low income women. You can learn more about how CEDAC and the Fund supported this project here.
- Brookview House, Dorchester – A second recent project that co-located early education space and supportive housing is Brookview House, which broke ground on May 8th. Brookview III combines 12 units of affordable housing with an out-of-school time program on the first floor. CEDAC and Children’s Investment Fund were on hand at that celebration as well, and you can read more about the groundbreaking here.
- Hope House, Dorchester – Also on May 8th, CEDAC was happy to celebrate the opening of Hope House, which provides housing and services for individuals in recovery from addiction. The new building includes 24 units of supportive housing for those completing the organization’s program. You can learn more about Hope House services here.
- 2Gen Center @ UTEC, UTEC, Lowell – On May 17th, UTEC opened the Nancy L. and Richard K. Donahue UTEC Hub for Social Innovation, which included the 2Gen Center @ UTEC, an early childhood education center supporting the children of the young parents that UTEC serves. The Children’s Investment Fund was on hand for the celebration of the center, which received funding from the Early Education and Out of School Time (EEOST) Capital Fund. You can read more about the event and the facility here.
- Hillside Residence, Sisters of Providence, West Springfield – On May 18th, CEDAC traveled to West Springfield to help the Sisters of Providence congregation break ground on its new development, Hillside Residence, which will bring 36 units of affordable housing with comprehensive support services to seniors living in Western Massachusetts. You can read more about how the $10 million project came together here.
- Blanchard School Apartments, Virginia Blanchard Memorial Housing Association, Uxbridge – CEDAC was on hand at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Blanchard School Apartments in Uxbridge on May 22nd. The project will turn a 19th century, Central Massachusetts school building into 25 units of family housing.
So yes, after all of the number crunching, negotiating design and construction scopes, securing public permits, and reviewing hundreds of pages of loan documents, it is always great to get out to project sites, meet with our colleagues, take a break from the daily grind, and celebrate each project’s achievement. We offer congratulations to all of our partners who have celebrated milestone events recently.
If you are interested in learning more about the affordable housing and child care facility projects we fund, please make sure to visit Housing Programs and Children’s Investment Fund sections of this website.
