Winter 2009

IN THIS ISSUE:
A message from Director Evelyn Friedman

In this issue of News From the Hub, you'll read about some of the ways that the City of Boston is working to support our neighborhoods in this challenging economic climate. From increased financial assistance for homebuyers of foreclosed properties, to an innovative program designed to provide Boston's businesses with long-term stability around their monthly utility costs, to new state and federal funding to assist the City's neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis – DND is working hard for Boston's residents. We hope you enjoy this Winter 2009 issue, and don't forget to check our website for the latest DND news.

Last November, Mayor Menino announced the creation of the City’s new Boston Buying Power initiative, an innovative energy-buying group designed to allow small businesses to purchase energy at a long-term fixed price through access to the deregulated energy market. Just three months later, close to 500 businesses from across Boston have signed on. To learn more, visit www.bostonbuyingpower.com.

DND, BRA Give Face Lift
to Downtown Crossing Businesses

DND's Office of Business Development's Design Services team has been working closely with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to offer assistance to small businesses in Downtown Crossing, a neighborhood that is home to approximately 6,000 residents, and boasts daytime crowds of as many as 230,000 people.

In an effort to harness this consumer power and improve the street presence of some of the district's older businesses, DND and the BRA hosted two design workshops last spring for more than 50 Downtown Crossing businesses, where owners were encouraged to take advantage of the City's design services.

Since that time, the Office of Business Development has been helping older businesses get a "face lift" by designing new signs or logos, designing web sites, and assisting the business owners through the process of approvals with City agencies.

Among those businesses that have benefitted from this work and more than $22,500 in grant funding, are: Watch Hospital, at 40 Bromfield Street; Pizzeria Rico, at 32 Bromfield Street; Olga's Kafé, at 99 Summer Street; Kennedy's Midtown, at 42 Province Street; National Consumer Law Center, at 7 Winthrop Square; Stoddard's Fine Food and Ale (coming soon to 48 Temple Place), and Kung Fu Video and DVD, at 365 Washington Street.

72 Wenham Street	66 Manor Street

A lucky Boston resident recently became the recipient of a new home, thanks to DND's Residential Development Program (RDP) and the Boston Home Center. Mary Richardson of Dorchester was one of seven qualified applicants in the Fall 2008 housing lottery for a two-family property at 72 Wenham Street in Jamaica Plain, and a single-family home at 66 Manor Street in Dorchester. The January lottery drawing was held only for 72 Wenham due to the fact that there was only one qualified applicant for the Manor Street property.

RDP is the program through which City-owned, tax-foreclosed one, two, and three-family homes are sold at a significantly reduced cost to income-eligible buyers who have completed the Boston Home Center’s homebuyer education courses. Homes are awarded through a lottery process, which typically takes place twice a year.

To learn more about future opportunities to purchase tax-foreclosed homes through the Residential Development Program, or to be added to our RDP mailing list, please call 617.635.HOME, or visit www.bostonhomecenter.com.

Mayor Menino, Boston Home Center
to Host Homebuyer Fair

On February 28, 2009, Mayor Menino and the Boston Home Center will host the City’s first Homebuyer Fair, designed to bring together potential homebuyers, realtors, lenders, and nonprofit homebuyer education counselors – all in one location.

This one stop-shopping approach by the City will give homebuyers direct access to information about many of Boston’s foreclosed properties which can present affordable homeownership opportunities for buyers, but are often difficult for individuals to access. Fair attendees will be able to meet with realtors about available properties throughout Boston, talk with mortgage lenders, and learn about increased financial assistance from the City of Boston, among other things. Learn more...

Boston Home Center Homebuyer Fair
Saturday, February 28, 2009 -- 10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.
Perkins Community Center, 155 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester

Real Estate Management & Sales
City’s Mid-Dorchester Action Plan Underway

Late in 2008, Mayor Menino announced a new planning study called the Mid-Dorchester Action Plan that encompasses Four Corners, Codman Square, and the Bowdoin-Geneva area.

A collaboration of DND and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, this plan will address issues related to land use and urban design, economic and business development, and will also include a Retail Market Analysis. Preliminary discussions with stakeholders and community groups were held last fall, and a full property and business inventory for the three districts has been completed.

Currently, city officials are working with an outside business/retail expert to undertake an overall business analysis and market assessment for the mid-Dorchester area. The City expects to complete the planning study this summer. Learn more…

Neighborhood Housing Development
Mayor Menino Announces City Could Benefit from $8M to Aid Boston’s Foreclosure Efforts
Funding Will Enhance Foreclosure Intervention Team’s Neighborhood Stabilization Initiatives

In January, Mayor Menino announced that the City of Boston has been approved to receive $4.23 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which Congress approved last July with the passage of the “Economic and Housing Recovery Act of 2008.” He said the City expects to apply for a matching grant of approximately $4 million from the state’s allocation of these funds through the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) in the coming months.

Boston was allocated the funds last September, conditioned on the creation and subsequent HUD approval of a plan to spend the award in accordance with Congressional intent. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was also awarded a total of $43 million for distribution among local communities as part of the $3.92 billion legislation that will deliver Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to state and local governments for foreclosure relief.

Mayor Menino said the funding, which will be administered through the Department of Neighborhood Development, will also support the City’s efforts to directly acquire groups of foreclosed properties from banks at discounted prices which can then be sold to homebuyers and developers using these new funds. The City expects to close on its first package of seven properties from Countrywide (recently acquired by Bank of America) in the next thirty days. The properties are located in East Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury.

In anticipation of such purchases, DND’s Neighborhood Housing Development division issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) last November to identify qualified development entities that could take possession of foreclosed/REO properties and promptly renovate and sell them to owner occupants or rent them as housing for low and moderate income households. Last month, 44 professional developers, non-profit development entities, and contractor-builders submitted their qualifications to the City. Read full press release...

Mayor Menino Celebrates New, Permanent Housing
for Homeless in Roxbury
Says “Victory Housing on Warren Street” to House Formerly Homeless Boston Residents

Last fall, Mayor Menino, together with DND Director Evelyn Friedman and Emergency Shelter Commission Director Jim Greene, joined Victory Programs for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Victory Housing on Warren Street development, a project that will provide permanent housing for 14 chronically homeless individuals in a rehabbed site in Roxbury. The development, Mayor Menino added, is the organization’s first completed project under their pilot housing program called the “Housing First” Initiative, designed to stabilize the lives of homeless individuals and their families through permanent housing. Read full press release…