New housing secretary Augustus announces $246M investment in 27 projects, five in region

Massachusetts' new housing secretary, who doesn’t officially start his job for almost two weeks, is already busy allocating funds to selected projects across the commonwealth, including five in Worcester County.

The state has allocated $246 million in direct subsidies and state and federal housing tax credits to 27 projects located in 20 communities. Two are located in Worcester - the Curtis Apartments and the former Boys Club at Lincoln Square - as well as housing starts in Fitchburg, Westminster and Winchendon.

The state will be supporting the projects with $105 million in direct subsidies and another $60 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, and $81 million in state and federal tax credits.

Former Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., tapped to become the secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, is determined to move Massachusetts forward on its mission to increase production, lower costs and expand access to affordable dwellings for the state’s lowest-income earners.

“These Affordable Rental Housing Awards are an important step to achieve these goals, and I look forward to expanding programs like this across the state as housing secretary,” Augustus said during a morning tour of a property in Lowell with Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kimberly Driscoll.

The projects, many that have already been initiated, span Massachusetts, and will add some 1,600 new or refurbished housing units to the state’s housing stock. Several of the projects address the need for senior housing outside Greater Boston, while others will offer immediate housing to homeless individuals.

“Today’s awards set in motion 27 innovative, mixed-use projects that will build and preserve nearly 1,600 affordable units across every region of our state,” said Healey. “These are the types of projects that our Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities will be driving in close collaboration with local, federal and private-sector partners to address our housing crisis.”

Addressing the state’s challenging housing markets is a key goal expressed by the Healey/Driscoll administration. The challenges range from lack of affordable worker housing in resort communities to lack of affordable apartments for recent college graduates, and even the lack of units to accommodate seniors who want to age in place but don’t have the resources or energy to maintain a family home.

“We are thrilled to see projects in communities across Massachusetts, from Pittsfield to Provincetown, that have strong local support and will bring much-needed new housing to our neighborhoods,” said Driscoll. “Our housing needs are great, and we are excited to move forward with a new, cabinet-level secretariat to create more homes and lower housing costs for residents.”

The projects selected for funding also place a priority on green and sustainable building practices. Some will be all electric, with energy-efficient “Passive House” certifications.

Curtis Apartments to get makeover

Work has already started on the redevelopment of Worcester’s Curtis Apartments, a public housing project. Announced last year, the $178 million redevelopment was undertaken by the housing authority with developer Trinity Financial, the same company that redeveloped the former Worcester County Courthouse in Lincoln Square.

The project is in its first phase of work, the construction of 129 new units in two structures, 80% of which will be reserved for low-income earners, with some of the units set aside for the lowest earners. The project calls for the demolition of 372 obsolete units to be replaced with 527 new, mostly affordable units.

When the project was announced in February 2022, Worcester Housing Authority CEO Alex Corrales said, “We are thrilled to have an opportunity to redevelop Curtis Apartments. It is long overdue. This is not just an opportunity to provide our current residents better housing but also allows us to create new apartments in our efforts to address the affordable housing needs of the city.”

Boys Club to be converted into senior, homeless housing

The second Worcester project that will receive funding is the redevelopment of the former Worcester Boys Club at Lincoln Square. The project, undertaken with owner WinnDevelopment, redevelops and adds to the existing structure. Once completed, the structure will house individuals 55 or older, as well as families with at least one member 55 or older. More than 80 affordable dwellings will be reserved for people and families who meet age and income restrictions, with units set aside for people transitioning out of homelessness.

At one time, Worcester had entered into a contract for redevelopment of the property with Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Once that agreement expired, WinnDevelopment purchased the property from the city for $300,000 in 2019. The 48,000-square-foot building will get a five-story addition over an abandoned section of Prescott Street and the Johnson Tunnel. Working with Preservation Worcester, the developer has already accumulated $2.9 million in state historic tax credits and has applied for federal historic tax credits as well.

The project in Fitchburg, at 470 Main St., is the redevelopment as housing of a mixed-use property in the downtown area. The sponsor is the nonprofit NewVue Communities.

The first-floor commercial tenant vacated its space during the COVID-19 pandemic, and NewVue now will convert the 8,000 square feet to additional affordable housing units. Once completed, the building will house 38 total units, with 26 units affordable to households earning less than 60% of area median income.

Four units will be reserved for households earning less than 30% of AMI. The new units to be constructed in the vacant commercial space will include electric heat pumps.

The median income in Fitchburg hovers around $60,000 a year.

New Westminster residences for seniors

The Westminster senior residences will be funded by the state, a new construction project that will sit adjacent to the town’s senior center. The sponsor is Commonwealth Community Developers, LLC. Once completed, the project will feature 50 new income-restricted affordable units for seniors, with 10 of the units featuring stricter income restrictions. The development will provide support services for the new residents of the project and features green and sustainable development, including high-efficiency, cold-climate heat pumps.

And in Winchendon, the Streeter and Poland project is an adaptive reuse and new construction project. The sponsor is the nonprofit Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center. With state assistance and other lenders, the developer will convert two vacant school buildings into affordable housing units with services for veterans. Once completed, the project will offer 44 affordable units, with 16 income-restricted units reserved for low-income veterans. There will be consideration of units for people transitioning from homelessness.

“We are proud to support such a fantastic round of projects, which will welcome new families and households to neighborhoods across the commonwealth,” said Jennifer Maddox, undersecretary at Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. “Affordable housing supports our most vulnerable residents, but it also enriches and stabilizes communities, ensures our communities are diverse, inclusive and provides strong foundations for all our families to thrive.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 27 projects, some 1,600 dwelling units to get state funding