Posted on September 23, 2004
Affordable housing rental efforts in Harwich and Hyannis have used MHP financing in combination with a program called Home Funders to create more rental apartments for very low-income families.
In Harwich, MHP will commit $1.67 million in financing for Sisson Road, a 13-unit affordable rental housing effort being developed by the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless (HECH).
MHP is providing $620,000 in first-mortgage financing, $750,000 in second mortgage financing at zero percent interest, and another $300,000 from Home Funders, a one-year-old program aimed at helping developers provide more of their units for lower-income families.
The Home Funders loan – a 2 percent interest only loan – will enable HECH to make four of its units available for people making 30 percent of median income, which on Cape Cod is $18,500 per year for a family of four.
“Home Funders will help us create apartments that really help the single parent who’s working a minimum-wage retail job, or the waitress who works hard in the summer and then scrimps by in the winter,” said Bob Murray, founder and president of the HECH board.
This is the second housing effort on Cape Cod that has used MHP’s Home Funders program. In Hyannis, MHP has loaned $495,000 in first-mortgage financing, $750,000 in second-mortgage financing and $225,000 from Home Funders for Southside Village, a 14-unit affordable rental housing effort owned by the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) of Hyannis. Home Funders helped HAC make three of its units available to families making 30 percent of median income.
“Affordable rental housing serves a critical need on the Cape,” said Rick Presbrey, executive director of Cape Cod-based Housing Assistance Corporation. “We are losing our younger population because of both a decreasing supply of rental housing and the high price of what housing is left. To make matters worse, most developers who want to do affordable housing are building only units for sale. Thanks to MHP and Home Funders, non-profit developers like HAC are beginning to fill the gap with new rental housing developments.”
MHP is a statewide public/non-profit affordable organization that uses private bank funds to provide loans for affordable rental housing. Bank mergers like the recent Bank of America-Fleet deal trigger the state statute that funds MHP.
Home Funders was founded by The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation and the Highland Street Connection. It is funded by some of Greater Boston’s leading philanthropic organizations and has raised $19 million so far.
In addition to these Cape efforts, MHP financing in combination with Home Funders has created more affordable rental units for lower-income families at the 64-unit Egleston Crossing effort in Roxbury, the 39-unit effort at the former LePage Glue Factory in Gloucester, and the 50-unit rental effort on the old Legal Seafood factory site in Brighton.
For more information, go to www.mhp.net or call 1-617-330-9944 x227.