Spring 2009
UPCOMING Brookford Dalin Dean Saturday, June 13, 2009, 10 – 11:30am Open House - 26 Arbutus St Saturday, June 13, 2009, 2:30 – 3:30pm Remember to visit the City Calendar to view additional events happening around Boston. _________________ Affordable Homes For Sale Download an Applicant Packet or pick up one at DND’s Bid Counter, located on the Questions can be directed to John Feuerbach, Senior Development Officer, at 617.635.0353 or by e-mail, at jfeuerbach.dnd@cityofboston.gov. Focus On: Under the leadership of Deputy Director, Bill Cotter, DND’s Boston Home Center (BHC) provides first-time homebuyers with educational courses and financial assistance, and markets homes developed for income-eligible, first-time homebuyers. The BHC also assists homeowners with education and foreclosure prevention counseling, and encourages strong, stable neighborhoods by providing residents with financing and technical assistance to maintain and improve their homes. Learn more about the Boston Home Center here… 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 learn more, please visit us at www.cityofboston.gov/dnd Department of Neighborhood Development
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IN THIS ISSUE:
A message from Director Evelyn Friedman
In this issue of News From the Hub, learn about the City’s latest comprehensive housing strategy, which includes a plan to reduce long-term and family homelessness by 50% by the year 2012; the continued progress on Dorchester’s Hendry Street; the first three recipients of Boston Invests in Growth loans totaling nearly $16 million, and the City’s partnership with This Old House and a local community development corporation to rehab a formerly foreclosed property in Roxbury – among other things. We’re looking forward to a busy summer here at the Department of Neighborhood Development – be sure to check out the City Calendar to see all that is taking place.
The Boston Home Center
Mayor Menino, Boston Home Center to Host
Third Housing Fair
Mayor Menino and the Boston Home Center have now hosted two successful Housing Fairs, designed to bring together potential homebuyers and current homeowners, realtors, lenders, and nonprofit housing education counselors – all in one location. A third fair has now been scheduled for this summer.
Designed for those interested in buying or fixing up a home in Boston, or for people who are thinking about purchasing a foreclosed property, this one stop-shopping approach by the City will give homebuyers and owners direct access to information about to many of Boston’s Real Estate Owned (REO) properties, home repair resources, and information about increased financial assistance from the City of Boston, among other things.
Boston Home Center Housing Fair - Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Harborside Community Center, 312 Border Street, East Boston
4:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Please call 617.635.HOME with questions.
Mayor Highlights Continued Progress in FIT Areas;
Cuts Ribbon for 15 & 17 Hendry Street
On May 11, 2009, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined the City’s Foreclosure Intervention Team (FIT) for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 15 and 17 Hendry Street, the first two of four formerly foreclosed three-decker homes that were acquired by the City of Boston last year from banks and then sold to a local developer, Bilt-Rite Construction, for redevelopment. The two neighboring properties, 19 and 21 Hendry Street, are near completion and are expected to be ready for homebuyers by mid-summer. Read more...
City Hosts Hundreds at Second Homeowner Foreclosure Prevention Workshop
On Saturday, April 4, 2009, the Boston Home Center hosted hundreds of residents at the City's second Homeowner Foreclosure Prevention Workshop in an effort to connect some of Boston's most vulnerable homeowners with their mortgage servicer to see if they can avoid foreclosure.
View video ...
Real Estate Management & Sales
DND Helps to Make Dorchester’s Four Corners Neighborhood Shine
On Friday, April 24, 2009, about 60 staff from the Department of Neighborhood Development participated in the annual Boston Shines neighborhood clean-up in Four Corners. The group, which was led by Four Corners Main Street, was charged with sprucing up the stretch of Washington Street from Harvard to Columbia, filled dozens of trash bags, cleaned and paint fences of City-owned lots, removed stickers and repainted the street's light poles, pruned and mulched trees, and added new planters outside several neighborhood businesses, among other projects.
View video ...
Boston Hosts National Brownfields Association Meeting
On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, Evelyn Friedman joined a distinguished panel of speakers for the National Brownfields Association (NBA) Massachusetts Chapter meeting, held at the Boston Public Library, for an opportunity to discuss the potential affects of federal stimulus funding on Brownfields redevelopment in the region. Among other things, Director Friedman spoke to the group about some of the City’s Brownfields successes, highlighting the Modern Electroplating and Boston East sites in particular.
Other guest speakers included the City's Environment Department Director Bryan Glasscock; President of the NBA Board of Directors, Kenneth Cornell; President and CEO of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, Robert Culver, and Susan Houston, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development.
The NBA, which is headquartered in Chicago, is the country's largest member-based organization dedicated to encouraging sustainable redevelopment. The organization has 22 chapters throughout the U.S. and Canada, totaling more than 1,200 members. Last fall, Mayor Menino took over as chair of the Massachusetts Chapter, which was previously chaired by Lt. Governor Timothy P. Murray.
The Office of Business Development
Mayor Awards $15.7M in Loans to First
Boston Invests in Growth Projects
On June 1, 2009, Mayor Menino announced the City’s commitment to issue the first Boston Invest in Growth loans, enabling important developments to move forward in three Boston neighborhoods, including a new shopping center in Hyde Park; a neighborhood market in South Boston, and a brand new hotel in the City’s Theater District. The three projects represent a $230 million economic investment, and are expected to generate more than 650 new permanent jobs and hundreds more construction jobs in Boston. Mayor Menino made the announcement at the future site of The Shops at Riverwood, in Hyde Park.
Read more…
Mayor Menino Helps to Open Five Businesses
in West Roxbury
On Saturday, May 30, 2009, Mayor Menino joined West Roxbury Main Streets in welcoming five small businesses along Centre Street to the West Roxbury community. The Mayor, who was joined by dozens of residents and business leaders, cut a ceremonial ribbon at Seek Books, Fresh Catch of the Day, Sew Easy, Macy’s Wine and Liquor Store, Pazzo Books, and Skara Grill.
Read the West Roxbury Transcript’s Mayor Menino shows there is an art to ribbon cutting, June 3, 2009
City Partners with This Old House, Community Organizations, to Rehab Foreclosed Roxbury Home
On May 11, 2009, Mayor Menino met This Old House host, Kevin O’Connor, out on Hendry Street to tell him a little bit about Boston’s efforts to stem the foreclosure crisis in Boston over the last two years. The conversation was taped for the show’s current house project, known as the “Roxbury House Project,” which is following the rehab of a formerly foreclosed two-family home on Woodbine Street in Roxbury, in recognition of the PBS home improvement television series’ 30-year anniversary of being based in Boston.
The Woodbine property, located in the heart of the previously identified Dacia Street Foreclosure Intervention Team area, is being redeveloped by Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation into two new affordable homeownership units. Roxbury-based general contractor David Lopes is overseeing the construction with help of students from YouthBuild Boston.
Learn more at www.toh.com.
Mayor Menino Unveils City’s Leading the Way III Strategic Housing Plan
On March 3, 2009, Mayor Menino announced the City’s third comprehensive housing strategy since 2000, Leading the Way III, designed to provide a roadmap for the City to meet Boston’s evolving housing needs. Joined by many of the City’s housing and homelessness advocates, as well as Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, several of the state’s top housing officials, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness director, Philip Mangano, the Mayor outlined the report’s focus on workforce housing production, rental housing preservation, revitalization of high foreclosure neighborhoods, and a plan to reduce long-term and family homelessness by 50% by 2012. Read more...