Fall 2008
UPCOMING Meet the Lender$ Meet the Lender$ Home Repair Workshops Remember to visit the City Calendar to view additional events happening around Boston. _________________ Affordable Homes For Sale Focus On: Under the leadership of Deputy Director, Sandra R. Duran, REMS is responsible for the maintenance, site assessment and disposition of the City's tax foreclosed and surplus property. These properties include more than 1,550 vacant parcels and 40 residential, commercial and industrial properties throughout Boston. REMS manages the process through which land and buildings are disposed, which often entails community meetings, crafting and issuing Requests for Proposals, and overseeing the review selection process of bidders. In addition, REMS is responsible for the care and custody of the historic Strand Theatre, which is operated by the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events. NOTE: In each issue of this newsletter, we'll provide you with a little insight into a particular DND division or program - so that you know a little bit more about what we do. Contact Us DND provides Boston residents with a host of services and resources related to home buying and home owning, affordable housing development, homelessness prevention, and small business assistance. To find out more, please visit our website, at www.cityofboston.gov/dnd Department of Neighborhood Development
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IN THIS ISSUE:
A message from
Director Evelyn Friedman
Welcome to the inaugural issue of DND's quarterly newsletter, News from the Hub. We hope you'll enjoy this new way to keep our constituents, neighbors, and partnering organizations up to date on neighborhood happenings around Boston. In this issue, you'll read about the City's latest initiative designed to assist small businesses with rising energy costs; recently awarded Brownfields grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the City's Green Affordable Housing Program, and the recent announcement by HUD to deliver $4.2 million to Boston to aid the City in its foreclosure efforts, among other things.
Boston Home Center
City Hosts Food + Fuel Summit
Campaign Designed to Assist Residents This Winter; Includes Expansion of DND's HeatWorks Program
On September 27, the City of Boston hosted a Food + Fuel Summit at Roxbury's Madison Park High School, which featured demonstrations by professionals on winterizing your home and tips on how to make the most out of your grocery budget this winter. Utility partners and community-based organizations were on hand to assist residents in accessing fuel aid and energy efficiency programming.
The event, which was attended by hundreds of residents, followed Mayor Menino's August announcement of the City's new Food + Fuel Campaign, a cross departmental initiative designed to assist residents with rising food and fuel costs.
As part of the announcement, Mayor Menino said DND's Boston Home Center would expand its HeatWorks program to now encourage energy efficiency among low and moderate income families with children under six, as well as senior homeowners. This expansion, Menino added, would be made possible by a $200,000 contribution from National Grid, which the City would match. Read more here
Mayor Menino Announces HUD to Deliver $4.2 Million to Aid Boston's Foreclosure Efforts
Says City Will Establish Fund Designed to Encourage Continued Neighborhood Stabilization
On September 26th, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that the City of Boston would receive $4.2 million in federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the 'Economic and Housing Recovery Act of 2008," passed by Congress in July. The financial support will allow Boston to establish a Foreclosed Property Reclamation Fund, designed to stabilize those neighborhoods disproportionately affected by foreclosures.
Boston is one of many hard-hit communities across the country to benefit from the $3.92 billion legislation that will deliver Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to states and local governments for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes.
Menino, who joined Congressman Barney Frank and other U.S. mayors at a congressional hearing last April to testify in support of direct federal assistance to cities with high rates of foreclosure, said city officials began discussing possible uses for the funding when the Act was passed to ensure any additional programming could be implemented immediately.
Boston's Foreclosed Property Reclamation Fund will make possible the continued acquisition of bank-owned properties by the City or by private developers in those neighborhoods hardest hit, and will allow for the provision of technical and rehabilitation assistance to new homeowners of foreclosed properties, or to those interested in purchasing a foreclosed property. Menino said the funds would be administered through the City's Department of Neighborhood Development.
Read full press release...
Real Estate Management & Sales
City, Bilt-Rite Readies for Renovation
of
Hendry Street Properties
DND Cites Important Milestone for Neighborhood
In early October, DND's Real Estate Management and Sales division hosted a community meeting at St. Peter's Teen Center on Bowdoin Street to introduce the surrounding neighborhood to Bilt-Rite Construction Inc., a Roxbury-based development and construction company recently selected through the City's bidding process to purchase and redevelop 15, 17, 19, and 21 Hendry Street.
DND highlighted the meeting as a milestone in the City's efforts to help stabilize the Dorchester neighborhood, one of several areas in the City which has been particularly hard-hit by foreclosures and abandoned properties. Meeting attendees asked learned about the company's scope of work at each of the four properties and had the opportunity to voice concerns to the developer and City Officials. Bilt-Rite expects to begin construction by early November, with a completion date set for early summer of 2009.
City Announces $503,500 in EPA Brownfields Grants
Mayor Says Grants Will Spur Revitalization of Three Parcels
Last month, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Department of Neighborhood Development announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the City of Boston more than $500,000 in Brownfields grants for the clean up of three former industrial sites in Hyde Park, Roxbury, and Dorchester. The grants, awarded through a competitive national selection process, represent three of nineteen grants that the EPA awarded to Massachusetts communities and regional councils to clean contaminated areas.
At the former Modern Electroplating and Enameling Facility in Roxbury's Dudley Square, grant funds will be used to remediate contamination stemming from a variety of metals and volatile organic compounds once used on the site. Funding will also benefit Hyde Park's former Lewis Chemical Corporation site on Fairmont Court, a facility that once collected, processed, and transported hazardous waste through the early 1980s. Finally, EPA funding will be utilized to remediate hazardous substances at 191 Bowdoin Street in Dorchester, a site formerly occupied by a gas station. Read the full press release...
Office of Business Development
City Issues Request for Responses for Small Businesses Energy Buying Partnership
Broker Selection Slated for October
In late August, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined the Department of Neighborhood Development in announcing that the City has released a formal Request for Responses (RFR) for qualified energy brokers or consultants to create an energy buying group for Boston's small business sector.
The RFR reflects the City's continued commitment to assisting the small business community by creating an innovative, cost-saving initiative designed to harness buying power through access to the unregulated energy market.
Mayor Menino first announced the initiative at a City-sponsored small business symposium and resource fair held in June, and said the City arrived at the idea at a time when many small businesses are facing rising materials and services costs. Mayor Menino most recently announced a "Food and Fuel Campaign," an initiative designed to help Boston residents deal specifically with the increased costs of groceries and heat this winter. Read full press release...
Beyond Baked Beans:
Discover Boston on Main Streets
Boston Main Streets' Guide to the City's Neighborhoods - New Third Edition
Boston Main Streets has released a new edition of Beyond Baked Beans: Discover Boston on Main Streets, a publication containing information about each of the 19 Boston Main Streets districts. Designed by DND Graphic Designer Phil Kerrigan, this revamped third edition of the guide includes maps, directions, places of interest, types of restaurants, and other details about the neighborhood commercial districts, and is designed to be useful for residents and visitors who want to explore Boston's neighborhoods beyond downtown. Read more...
Neighborhood Housing Development
City Celebrates Green Affordable Housing Program
Mayor Presents Funding Awards to Six 'Green' Affordable Developments
In August, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Department of Neighborhood Development announced the City's Green Affordable Housing Program, the latest in the City's effort to support and encourage sustainable development throughout Boston's neighborhoods. The Mayor also announced the six recipients of $2 million in funding made possible by a grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC). The funding will support a number of energy-saving construction techniques and sustainable design standards throughout each of the projects, including solar photovoltaic panels.
The City's Green Affordable Housing Program (GAHP) is designed to develop affordable housing that, through the use of green technologies and materials, not only results in low maintenance and energy costs for renters and homeowners, but also promotes the health and well-being of residents. The program also seeks to minimize the environmental impacts of development by conserving water, energy, and other resources, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Read the full press release...
South End School Set to Receive
'Garden Design Award' for Outdoor Classroom
Therapeutic Garden Made Possible through DND's Grassroots Program
In September, the Department of Neighborhood Development learned that one of its program-funded projects, the William E. Carter School Sensory Garden Outdoor Classroom, would receive the American Horticultural Therapy Association's (AHTA) 2008 Garden Design Award at an award ceremony in November.
The 16,450-square-foot garden, which was formally dedicated last October by city and school officials at the South End school, is designed to create sensory appeal and learning motivation for students who are educationally challenged by severe cognitive and developmental disabilities. DND provided $22,000 in technical assistance and $99,000 in construction funding for the project through its Grassroots program.
Grassroots is designed to fund the development of community gardens and other non-profit-owned open space throughout the City of Boston, primarily in support of DND-funded housing activity.