Posted on June 13, 2014
(Note: Since this story was posted, Arthur Jemison went on to serve in several executive roles for the City of Detroit before joining the Biden Administration as a senior official at the at the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. On April 19, 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu named him the city's new chief of planning).
AMHERST, June 13, 2014 --- Of all the speakers at the grand opening of Olympia Oaks, the most memorable was the state’s Arthur Jemison, an Amherst native who spoke from the heart about what affordable housing means to him.
“If you need a reminder about why affordable housing is important, look at me,” said the deputy director at the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). “At a time when my family was financially stressed, the affordable housing I grew up in at Watson Farms made all the difference in my life.
“It’s where I learned about my admission to college and grad school. It’s where my sister learned she’d been accepted to medical school. It’s what inspired me to get involved in planning and development. This is the most important thing to remember about this housing, how it can change lives.”
It was fitting that Jemison came back to his home town to articulate what affordable housing means to him because Amherst has one of the best track records in the state for consistently trying to create and preserve its supply of affordable housing, which is under constant pressure of being lost due to the many colleges and universities in the area. Earlier in June, MHP recognized the town for its efforts by presenting it with one of its annual Local Housing Hero Awards.
Amherst’s supply of affordable housing has been above 10 percent since 1988, yet has continued through the years to bring more affordable housing on line, most recently the 26-unit Butternut Farm project. At its most recent town meeting it voted to expand its supplemental dwelling bylaw, established an affordable housing trust and approved by a near-unanimous vote to spend $1.25 million in Community Preservation Act funds to help preserve 41 affordable rental homes in a 202-unit expiring use apartment building.
“This is a wonderful setting for family housing and an example of how committed Amherst is to affordable housing,” said MHP Senior Advisor Rita Farrell at the June 13 grand opening. “Amherst is a community where over 10 percent of its housing is affordable but they haven’t stopped trying to create more. MHP is always looking for examples of how towns create housing and this is a showcase example that we will be using to show other towns how to get it done.”
Financed primarily with federal low-income tax credits awarded by DHCD, Olympia Oaks was developed by HAPHousing, the Springfield-based housing non-profit. It features 42 rental homes, all affordable to households below 60 percent of median income. The $8.9 million development features eight one-bedroom, 21 two-bedroom and 13 three-bedroom apartments. Olympia Oaks was built on 13.5 acres of a 27-acre town-owned site. The 13.5 acres has been leased to HAPHousing for 99 years. The rest of the land is preserved as open space.
In addition to tax credits, the state and the Patrick Administration supported Olympia Oaks with additional funding from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Housing Stabilization Investment Trust Fund, a state funded bond program that assists in the production and preservation of affordable housing for low-income families and individuals.
The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. was the tax credit investor. Construction financing was provided by the Life Initiative. The Massachusetts Housing Partnership used its bank-funded loan pool to provide $535,000 in long-term financing. Additional support was provided by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC), Interfaith Housing Inc. and Energy Star.
In addition to leasing town land for the development, the Town of Amherst granted a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit to allow the housing to be built and contributed a total of $595,000 in CPA and federal Community Development Block Grant Funds.
HAPHousing Executive Director Peter Gagliardi served as master of ceremonies. Other speakers at the grand opening included U.S. Rep. James McGovern, state Rep. Ellen Story, Selectman Aaron Hayden, Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Peter Sargent of MHIC, Roger Herzog of CEDAC, Jan Desard of the Interfaith Housing Corp., Mike Gondek of the Life Initiative and JoAnne Campbell of Valley CDC, which served as a consultant to the project.
For more information about this development and MHP’s financing options, contact Senior Loan Officer David Hanifin at dhanifin@mhp.net.