Posted on June 1, 2014
BOSTON, Sat, May 31, 2014 --- Mayor Martin J. Walsh joined state and local leaders on Saturday, May 31 to celebrate the grand opening of Bloomfield Gardens and to salute VietAID for its continuing efforts to develop affordable housing and raise the quality of life in the Fields Corner neighborhood.
VietAID – short for the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development Corp. – took a vacant site at the corner of Geneva and Bloomfield Avenue and developed it into a handsome four-story apartment building featuring 27 rental homes all affordable to households making less than 60 percent of area median income.
Bloomfield Gardens features four studio, two one-bedroom, 17 two-bedroom and four three-bedroom units. Seven of the family units (two- and three-bedroom) will be affordable to families with incomes at or below 30 percent of area median income, which is $28,250 for a family of four.
The development was financed primarily with federal and state tax credits awarded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The state also provided federal HOME funds as well as funding through its Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Housing Innovation Fund. The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. was the construction lender and MassDevelopment provided a grant for site cleanup The City of Boston supported the development with federal HOME funds and from the city’s housing trust fund.
The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) used its bank-funded loan pool to provide $647,000 in long-term permanent financing and $350,000 in second mortgage financing from HomeFunders, a philanthropic fund that MHP offers to help developers offer lower rents. This is the third time MHP has provided financing to VietAID for affordable housing. Previously, MHP financed a six-unit development on Faulkner Street and 1460 House, a 43-unit rental development on Dorchester Ave.
“What is satisfying about these three developments is that they have not only provided much-needed affordable housing but they are also quality, new buildings that revitalize the look of the neighborhood,” said David Rockwell, MHP’s director of lending. “That’s why we’re looking forward to doing more work with VietAID.”
VietAID has now developed 128 units of affordable housing in the Fields Corner area. But VietAID is not just a housing organization. In the last 15 years, it has developed a community center, commercial space, and runs several programs in the community, including a small business assistance program, an early childhood education program, after school and summer programs, a first-time homebuyer program and a foreclosure prevention program. In 2013, the nonprofit Dorchester House honored Viet-AID with a community service award.
In explaining the organization’s mission at the time, VietAID executive director Nam Pham said, “The need for affordable housing in our community keeps increasing so over the last 10 years we have focused more on meeting that need.”
VietAID is now focused on developing 35 units along Washington St. on site of previous vacant buildings. The plan proposes to include units for low-income and 3,000 sq feet of commercial space.
For more information about this development and MHP’s financing options, contact MHP Senior Loan Officer Megan Mulcahy at mmulcahy@mhp.net.