MassHousing Announces New Round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program Capital Grants

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and MassHousing today announced a total of $6.9 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants, to 10 community-based organizations, to fund the redevelopment or rehabilitation of 37 affordable homes, including 23 new affordable homeownership opportunities.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is a $50 million capital grant program administered by MassHousing that provides municipalities and nonprofit developers with funds to address blight, abandonment and disinvestment in residential neighborhoods, by providing grants for the construction, reconstruction, renovation or repair of substandard rental and homeownership properties.

"Neighborhood Stabilization grants underscore the power of housing to transform people's lives and build up our communities," said Ed Augustus, Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. "Each one of these grants will bring pride back to neighborhoods by reviving properties and providing much-needed housing to individuals and families across our state."

"These grants will enable 23 families to achieve homeownership for the first time, allowing them to begin building generational wealth," said MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay. "We thank our community-based partners for their work investing in families, while rehabilitating deteriorating properties and breathing new life into vacant lots."

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program provides deeper levels of construction subsidy than were previously available through state sources, allowing municipalities and their development partners to address the impacts of longstanding neglect. MassHousing administers the Neighborhood Stabilization Program on behalf of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

MassHousing launched the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in 2022. To date, the program has awarded $19.6 million in funding, resulting in the construction or substantial rehabilitation of 123 homes, including 69 new homeownership opportunities for lower-income first-time homebuyers.

Communities across the Commonwealth are eligible to apply for Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant funding, although the program prioritizes projects that will have the greatest impact in weaker markets, including rural communities and communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also prioritizes projects that promote homeownership and climate-resilient design, and projects that include diverse sponsors. All homes created or rehabilitated through the program will remain affordable for at least 15 years.

Awarded Projects: 

41-45 Orange Street, Chelsea

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston, Inc. is partnering with Comunidades Enraizadas Community Land Trust (CECLT) to build five townhouse homeownership units on two city-owned lots in Chelsea. The City of Chelsea designated Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston and CECLT to redevelop the properties for affordable housing.

12 Coburn Street, Framingham

South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) will renovate this seriously damaged rental unit so that it can again provide an affordable home. Funding is needed to restore the kitchen and living areas, baseboard heating, and safety features to once more make it habitable and available for rent to lower-income families.

184 Petty Plan Road, Greenfield

Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity will redevelop this very small, blighted property, constructing a new, energy efficient one-bedroom home that will be offered to a lower-income homebuyer at an affordable price.

Historic Capitol Theatre, 1418-1440 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford

Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts (CEDC) has acquired this historic building located within an Environmental Justice census block near New Bedford's North End neighborhood. The building, which has been vacant since the 1970s, will be restored and transformed into six affordable rental apartments, and will also provide commercial space that will house small businesses and health and neighborhood services.

112 Robbins Avenue, Curtis Terrace, and Murphy Place, Pittsfield

Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity is partnering with the City of Pittsfield to create five new affordable homeownership opportunities in the Westside and Morningside neighborhoods. The existing, abandoned and derelict home on Robbins Avenue will be razed and new energy-efficient modular homes will be built on all three properties, including one single-family and two two-family buildings.

597 Wareham Road, Plymouth

Habitat for Humanity Greater Plymouth is partnering with the Town of Plymouth to restore a modest two-bedroom home in south Plymouth as a new homeowner opportunity. The 75-year-old home is in south Plymouth on a road that has only recently been paved and is not on town water or sewer.

Scattered Site Infill, Springfield

Wayfinders, Inc. has been designated as the developer of six properties in the Old Hill and Upper Hill neighborhoods by the City of Springfield. In addition, they are the court-appointed receiver for a derelict two-family home in the North End neighborhood. The six city-owned properties will be redeveloped with new single-family affordable homeownership opportunities. The North End property has a two-family structure, which Wayfinders plans to renovate as an affordable homeownership opportunity with rental.

6 Chapel Lane, Wareham

Wareham Area Committee for the Homeless is partnering with the owner of 6 Chapel Lane (6 Chapel Lane LLC) to develop this former church site into a six-unit rental development for formerly homeless families.

116 Piedmont Street, Worcester

Worcester Common Ground, a nonprofit community development corporation, will redevelop this long-vacant lot in the Piedmont neighborhood into a three-unit residential building serving three moderate-income first-time homebuyers. The first-floor unit will become a fully accessible two-bedroom home; the others will be three-bedroom units.

13 Hawley Street, Worcester

Habitat for Humanity MetroWest (HFHMW) plans to build a single-family home on this residential street near the Piedmont neighborhood in Worcester. The lot, which at one time had a residential structure on it, is owned by the city, which has designated HFHMW as developer.