Established in 1969 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston under the leadership of Monsignor Michael F. Groden and Cardinal Cushing, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. (POUA) is a non-profit social justice ministry that strives to create vibrant communities through the development of high quality affordable and mixed income housing, where people of modest means can live with dignity and respect in homes they can afford. As a foremost non-profit developer in the Northeast and one of the leading diocesan housing ministries for the Catholic Church in America, POUA has created 2,700 units of affordable and mixed-income housing, providing homes for more than 11,000 people and becoming one of the most productive non-profit housing developers in the region. Altogether, this work represents developments with financing in excess of $625 million. The emphasis of POUA is not on numbers, though, but on having a qualitative impact on the harsh reality of housing deprivation for poor and working class families, the elderly, disabled persons and others in need of decent, affordable homes.