Home Funders - Raising the Roof for Homeless Families. Projects

Home Funders - Helping homeless families

Home Funders is making a difference all around eastern Massachusetts. To download our current Project List, please click here.

Source Greig Cranna

Thomas Atkins Apartments, Roxbury
This Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation project is comprised of 48 multi-family affordable apartments. The project was built on the site of the former Kasanof Bakery, which closed in the 1970s. The four-story brick rental apartment building includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units for individuals and families, as well as a community room. Ten units are set aside for families earning below 30% of AMI.

Having a $1.5 million acquisition loan at 2% from Home Funders on the original acquisition price tag of $2 million saved this project nearly $500,000 during five years of delays caused by an unusually long community vetting process, unexpected environmental remediation and the collapse of the tax credit market in 2008.

Source Chelsea Neighborhood Developers Staff

Spencer Row, Chelsea
This Chelsea Neighborhood Developers project provides 32 affordable family apartments in Chelsea, MA, on the site of a vacant manufacturing building. A $1.4 million Home Funders acquisition loan helped bring the project online. The complex includes one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Eight units are rented to households earning up to 30% AMI. The building has a parking garage below three stories of housing. Design, construction methods, and materials all include sustainable and "green" elements. The site is located near four elementary schools, athletic fields, and playgrounds.

Source Abigail Chapman, CDP Staff

Thankful Chases, Harwich
The Lower Cape Cod Community Development Partnership (CDP) used a pre-development loan of $96,500 from Home Funders to explore feasibility for the Thankful Chases project, which brings 12 units of affordable housing to Harwich, MA. Three of the units are designated for ELI families. On the Cape, affordable housing is in short supply. Over the years, the CDP has brought 70 units of affordable housing to the eight communities of the Lower Cape.

Source Greig Cranna

Olmstead Green I, Dorchester
This project, developed on the site of the former Boston State Hospital, is the work of Lena New Boston, a joint venture between Lena Park CDC and New Boston Development Partners, a for-profit developer. The first phase of Olmsted Green, this project includes a total of 51 rental apartments, with 21 ELI units. The project includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units in nine four-story buildings. This project was made possible in part by a $750,000 acquisition loan from Home Funders.

Source Greig Cranna

St. Joseph's, Lowell
An adaptive reuse of a former Catholic School in a building owned by Coalition for a Better Acre brings 15 rental units online for families and elders, including three units for ELI families.

Resident Story - Eliana and Jose Morales
Eliana and Jose Morales and their son Phoenix are from Lowell, and moving to the St. Joseph's school felt like winning the lottery. Since moving to St. Joseph's in the summer of 2009, they are thrilled with their new housing. For most residents who come from the Lowell area, it is rare to find newly constructed units. The Coalition for a Better Acre, which developed the site, is now working on redevelopment of the St. Joseph's High School building to create 22 more affordable housing units.

Source Greig Cranna

Humphreys Street, Dorchester
This new construction, sponsored by Sojourner House, offers 11 housing units in one three-story wood-frame building. All units are affordable to residents who earn up to 60 percent of area median income (AMI), with at least three two-bedroom units affordable to residents up to 30 percent AMI.

Source Greig Cranna

Dudley Village, Dorchester
Dudley Village provides 50 units of new construction, multifamily rental housing built on public land and on private parcels bought by Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC). The project includes three common green spaces, a tot lot, and five commercial spaces.

Source Robert Knight

Spencer Green, Chelsea
Chelsea Neighborhood Developers' (CND) most recent housing development is composed of 48 new affordable apartments on the site of the former Chelsea Armory, with 8 units priced for extremely low-income households. Green and environmentally sustainable building practices were employed throughout.

Source Lia Ziegler

Palmer Cove, Salem
Carmen Maldonado suddenly found herself living in a homeless shelter after an unexpected split with her children's father. While she works as a homemaker, she was just not making enough money to pay for market rate housing for herself and her two young children. In March 2010, Ms. Maldonado and her daughters, Luineli age 7, and Yandelin age 5, moved into the Palmer Cove development. Built by the North Shore CDC, this former market rate condominium project was converted into an affordable rental housing development with $150,000 in permanent financing from Home Funders and the support of the Department of Housing and Community Development. The development offers 15 units of two and three bedrooms, with five units set aside for ELI families. When Ms. Maldonado qualified for one of these units, she was so relieved to be moving into a "beautiful and clean apartment." The shelter stay was an extremely humbling experience and one she hopes will never happen again. Now her daughters have their own room again, and Carmen says she feels safer and enjoys the privacy she has. Ms. Maldonado is also participating in the North Shore Community Action Program's stabilization initiative which provides a case manager to help families determine their needs, access community resources and develop a support network. Ms. Maldonado also hopes to explore training opportunities that will benefit her family.

Source Nuestra CDC

Adams Court, Mattapan
Nuestra CDC, working in partnership with Mattapan CDC, performed a substantial rehabilitation of the Adams Court buildings to modernize units and preserve affordable rental housing in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston. This Home Funders project updated 45 units, with 10 of these available for extremely low-income families.

Photo by Greig Cranna

Photo by ABCDC

Brian J. Honan Apartments, Allston
Lamonte is a 39 year-old social worker with a wife and two children. He and his wife are also deaf, raising two hearing children. With one salary between them, finding a decent, stable and affordable apartment was impossible. In just one year they moved three times. Enter the Brian J. Honan Apartments in Allston developed by the Allston-Brighton CDC. The couple now lives in one of the 50 new affordable rental units. “I’m not sure you can imagine the relief and joy we felt,” notes mom Shonnese. “At least now we feel like we have a fighting chance.”

Photo by Greig Cranna

Ruggles Preservation, Roxbury
Another successful Home Funders loan, delivered through the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, has facilitated the redevelopment of a Ruggles Street and Shawmut Avenue property that went from 40 to 43 units, including nine units for ELI families. Jeanne Pinado, Charlotte Golar Ritchie of the City of Boston, Mayor Menino, Jane Wallis Gumble who heads the state Department of Housing & Community Development, and many others attended the ribbon cutting ceremony in October 2006.

Photo by Greig Cranna

Acushnet Commons, New Bedford
Acushnet Commons is an award winning project, receiving the Fannie Mae Foundation's Maxwell Award from a nationwide pool of 70 projects. The award was given in the "Innovative Partnership" category for the project’s partnership with a childcare/family support provider. Opened in 2006 with 12 units of housing for the New Bedford community with 6 designated for ELI families, funding came through numerous sources including a Home Funders loan from MHP.

Photo by Greig Cranna

Egleston Crossing, Roxbury
The heart of Roxbury’s Egleston Square gets a lift from two Urban Edge buildings – a mixed-use redevelopment project that includes 64 affordable housing units incorporated into a green building-design that will significantly cut energy usage.

Photo by Greig Cranna

Haverhill Street YWCA, Lawrence
Teen mothers and homeless families have reason to cheer in Lawrence Massachusetts. Fina House, located at the Greater Lawrence YWCA, opened in 2005 and provides 17 units of transitional and permanent housing for female-headed households. The new facility, an expansion of the YWCA’s long-standing transitional housing services, received pre-development funding from Home Funders.

Photo by Greig Cranna

Essex Street, Gloucester
Pond View Village Apartments on Essex Street in Gloucester brings 43 affordable rental units online along with 15 condominiums, priced affordably for qualified first-time home buyers. This project is for the adaptive re-use and new construction of at the former LePage Glue Factory site. It consists of 3 buildings and has 8 Section-8 Rent Assisted Units.

Photo by Greig Cranna

63 Washington Street, Chelsea
HarborCOV’s project in Chelsea offers 24 affordable housing units, all available for ELI families. This project was funded in part by Home Funders through a CEDAC loan.

To download our current Project List, please click here.

"What I’ve learned is that I have to keep setting goals. I got into good housing. Then I started working two jobs. Now I need to get my GED.” - Home Funders Tenant

“Besides giving me a place to live, I now have people I can ask for help. When I didn’t know what to do about my child skipping school I was able to get suggestions from other residents.” - Home Funders Tenants

“Now that I have a home I’ve been able to find a job. I work as a day care assistant. This is great because I can take my youngest with me. He still needs reassurance that we’ll be okay. I think his being close to me at work has calmed him down.” - Home Funders Tenant

“People don’t realize how crazy life is when you are living in relative’s living rooms. Now my health is better. My kids are doing better in school and we can be a real family.” - Home Funders Tenant