WASHINGTON, D.C. –The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing announced that it recently closed a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) transaction with the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) in Boston, MA, at Mission Main in the Mission Hill neighborhood.
This transaction will preserve and rehabilitate 445 deeply affordable rental homes using a RAD/Section 18 Blend, a component of RAD that allows for higher levels of funding to preserve and rehabilitate affordable public housing rental homes which, without the blend option, would otherwise not be financially feasible.
Mission Main, a development of 535 rental homes, currently includes 31 residential buildings comprised of a 120-home mid-rise building for low-income seniors, and 30 townhomes, including the 445 public housing rental homes preserved through RAD.
Through RAD, homes at Mission Main will receive significant kitchen and bathroom rehabilitation, select flooring and painting upgrades, and select HVAC upgrades. To promote energy efficiency and conservation, new energy and water efficient kitchens and baths with a new net-zero hybrid heating and cooling system will be installed in Mission Main’s building for low-income seniors. Higher energy efficiency will also be achieved through-wall air conditioner and heater openings, air conditioning sleeves, and air conditioning units in all 30 townhome building bedrooms. Additionally, there will be supportive services on site including after-school, youth, and senior programs.
“The RAD Program is the most powerful tool HUD provides to communities to be able to preserve and improve affordable properties and address the backlog of deferred maintenance,” said HUD New England Regional Administrator Juana Matias. “It gives owners the opportunity to enter into long-term contracts that facilitate the financing of improvements to ensure continued availability of affordable units and is a crucial program to address the shortages we are seeing that lead to housing instability for families all over the region.”
“Mission Main was one of the very first Hope VI revival stories here in Boston, and since the 1990’s, hundreds of Mission Main families have enjoyed a monumentally better quality of life on Mission Hill,” BHA Administrator Kate Bennett said. “This contract with HUD will help secure those gains and ensure that Mission Main remains a thriving affordable community for many decades to come.”
“I am happy that we are moving forward, and it will be good to see the coming upgrades for our homes get underway,” said Willie Pearl Clark, President of the Mission Main Tenant Task Force. “As a long-time resident of Mission Main, it’s so important that we continue to preserve needed affordable housing for our families for the future.”
The RAD transaction includes a $66 million construction budget ($123,000 per home) fully financed through:
- FHA-insured mortgage from the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency through FHA’s Section 542 (c) risk-sharing program
- Public Housing Authority non-federal funds
- Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency funds
- 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity
The investments facilitated through RAD reinforce the property’s ability to serve as affordable housing for the long-term.
