Healey Administration Pledges $16 Million to 3 Cambridge Affordable Developments

Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 pledged $16.3 million toward three affordable housing developments in Cambridge, according to an Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities press release last Monday.

The three developments are among 26 statewide set to receive a boost in funds from the Healey administration, which recently announced a $20 million increase in federal affordable housing tax credits last October.

The projects will receive funding from both the federal tax credit and state subsidies, per the press release. An EOHLC spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday email that the units receiving funding “are intended to be affordable in perpetuity,” although state regulations only require that they remain affordable for 30 years.

Two of the three developments receiving funding are part of the Cambridge Housing Authority’s broader redevelopment of Jefferson Park Federal, which will have 278 affordable rental units in addition to new green spaces following renovation.

The CHA is set to reconstruct Clifton Place as the first phase of Jefferson Park’s modernization and has proposed four four-story buildings, comprising 195 of the total new units. Clifton Place will receive $1.6 million in subsidies and $8.2 million in tax credits, the spokesperson wrote.

All of the units in Clifton Place are reserved for low-income households, or those earning below 60 percent of the area median income, with 28 units reserved for households earning less than 30 percent of the area median income.

The area median income set by the Department of Housing and Urban development for the Boston, Cambridge, and Quincy area is nearly $150,000 for a four-person household.

Jackson Place, an 83-unit project within the Jefferson Park redevelopment, will receive $800,000 in subsidies and $3.7 million in tax credits, according to the spokesperson. Fourteen of the units are reserved for households earning less than 30 percent of the area median income.

In the press release, Michael J. Johnston, the executive director of the CHA, thanked the Healey administration for the funding.

“Conditions were so poor at Jefferson Park that a third of the families onsite were relocated and units boarded up five years ago,” Johnston wrote. “The funding being provided by the administration is the final critical piece to start construction on the new Jefferson Park.”

Preservation of Affordable Housing, a non-profit developer, is also slated to receive $500,000 in subsidies and $1.5 million in tax credits to convert a portion of the now-vacant Sacred Heart Church property to 46 affordable rental units.

Aaron Gornstein, the president and CEO of Preservation of Affordable Housing, praised the Healey administration “for tackling the housing crisis head-on by expanding affordable housing production and preservation across the state.”

“This vital funding, along with strong local support, will provide new rental homes for nearly 100 low- and moderate-income families in Cambridge and Wellfleet while advancing the Governor’s goals of addressing climate change and creating new jobs,” Gornstein wrote.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.

—Staff writer Olivia W. Zheng can be reached at olivia.zheng@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @oliviawzg.