Unity Place latest chapter in Lowell neighborhood revival

LOWELL, Dec. 6, 2011 --- The ongoing revitalization of Lowell's Acre neighborhood is embodied in the comeback story of Kimberly Glenn because the Acre was her worst nightmare and is now the place where she can dream.

Glenn told her story on Dec. 1 at the grand opening of Unity Place. Once the site of two boarded up homes that defined the word "eyesore," they have been replaced by an attractive four-story energy-efficient apartment building that features 23 affordable rental homes, one of which Glenn will live in with her two children.

Glenn said the Acre was "a source of great pain for me" because her aunt was shot and killed by an ex-boy friend in front of her three children when Glenn was a child. Years later, Glenn experienced her own struggles as she had a child, became pregnant with twins, lost one child during birth, moved briefly to Texas to be with her recently widowed father and then returned to Lowell without a job or a home. It was in Lowell where she said she made the hardest decision of her life, entering herself and her two boys into a shelter program. She lived in transitional housing, eventually got a job as an administrative assistant at the Boys & Girls Club and then was selected to live at Unity Place.

At the grand opening ceremonies, Glenn came full circle, taking the podium accompanied by two of her aunt's teenage children, Desiree and Darnell. "I prayed for a miracle and that miracle came when I was selected to live at Unity Place," she told the audience. "I give thanks to Unity Place for giving me and my children a wonderful place to live."

Glenn wasn't the only one to testify to the Acre's turnaround. Jose Morales, a city firefighting trainee, told his story of how he grew up in the neighborhood and now lives across the street with his wife and two boys in one of the new apartments at the former St. Joseph's School, which was redeveloped into 22 apartments in 2010. "I loved the Acre when I was growing up but it wasn't always a great place to be," he said, noting that the neighborhood was pockmarked with rundown buildings. "But I saw the improvements and came back and now I can't believe I'm living in the same place where I attended elementary school."

The organization largely responsible for St. Joseph's, Unity Place and the Acres' revival is the nonprofit Coalition for a Better Acre (CBA). Working in concert with the City of Lowell, CBA has attracted $80 million in reinvestment to the neighborhood's Moody Street corridor and now has a portfolio of over 400 rental apartments and 33 commercial units. "This is a process that has been going on for 25 years now and when you walk around the neighborhood, you can feel the difference," said Emily Rosenbaum, CBA's executive director.

Unity Place was financed primarily through federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits awarded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), with the privately-funded Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. (MHIC) as the tax credit investor.

"Organizations like Coalition for a Better Acre are a big reason why the Patrick Administration is able to reach its goals on affordable housing," said Steve Carvalho, DHCD's acting director.

"We're lucky to have a city like Lowell, where the city works on having strong relationships with community organizations like CBA," added Joe Flatley, MHIC's executive director.

The state also supported Unity Place with $1 million from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $750,000 from the Housing Innovation Fund and $138,000 in federal HOME funds. The City of Lowell supported the development with $350,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds. Enterprise Bank was the development's construction lender and NeighborWorks America provided an additional $184,000 in funding.

MHP continued its long-standing support of CBA's efforts to rebuild the Acre, providing $450,000 in fixed-rate first mortgage financing from its bank-funded loan pool and an additional $300,000 low-interest second mortgage from Home Funders, a program MHP offers to help developers make more of their units available to lower-income and formerly homeless families.

"We're pleased to be a part of another CBA development and to be able to offer Home Funders, which is designed to solve the long-term problem of homelessness," said Mark Curtiss, MHP's director of loan funds. "Home Funders allows lower-income families to find rental homes they can afford and begin the process of rebuilding their lives."

MHP has now supported five CBA developments, providing nearly $19.8 million for the financing of 361 units of rental housing. MHP's largest loan to CBA was $16 million for the preservation and rehabilitation of 267-unit North Canal Apartments, which are located throughout the Acre and are the most visible signs of the neighborhood's revival.

Unity Place features four one-bedroom, 11 two-bedroom and eight three-bedroom rental homes, all affordable to households at or below 60 percent of area median income (AMI), or no more than $55,000 for a household of four. Thanks in part to Home Funders, six apartments will be affordable at or below 30 percent AMI, which is $27,500 for a household of four.

State Senator Eileen Donoghue, state Rep. Kevin Murphy and Mayor James Milinazzo also spoke at the event and each praised CBA for leading the revitalization of the Acre neighborhood.

"There's nothing more important than stabilizing a neighborhood, especially when you do it by building new homes instead of slapping a coat of paint on something old," said Donoghue.

"A couple of years ago, we were standing across the street at St. Joseph's and I looked at the two boarded up buildings that were here and I asked Emily, 'why can't we do something about that?' ", said Murphy.

CBA did something and the neighborhood is grateful, especially Kimberly Glenn.