Posted on October 6, 2016
HAVERHILL --- Julio Quinones has been playing the lottery off and on his whole adult life but hasn’t won much. So when he saw an ad in the paper for a housing lottery, his first thought was, “I’m not going to win that one.”
Equating the state lottery with a housing lottery says a lot about the quest for housing in Massachusetts but in this case, Quinones hit the jackpot: he hit the housing lottery and moved his family into a brand new affordable apartment at Tenney Place.
“I finally won the lottery,” said Quinones, who works for the Hampton Inn hotel chain as a chief engineer. “I’ve been working to find a good home for my wife and daughter. Where I was living before, there was a lot of mayhem and not a place where you want to raise a family. This place is quiet and the people treat you with respect. I’m at the point in my life where I want a nice life for my family.”
Developed by Dakota Partners of Waltham, Tenney Place features two four-story buildings and 72 mixed-income apartments, 56 of them affordable to families at or below 60 percent of area median income. It is located two-tenths of a mile from Rt. 495 and two miles from downtown Haverhill. An identical second phase is being planned that will add 72 more apartments to the largely-wooded site.
Dakota's Arista: Resident stories = mission
At the grand opening on Sept. 21, Dakota’s principal partner, Roberto Arista, began ceremonies by describing some of the new residents at Tenney Place – a young, formerly homeless couple with four children, one who is disabled and in a wheelchair; a single father and two children who had been living with his parents; a number of military veterans, including one who had been living in a shelter; and Quinones' finding a safe place for his family.
“When we meet these residents and hear their stories, we know that we are fulfilling our mission of improving the lives of the people in our communities,” said Arista.
Tenney Place Phase I was built with a Ch. 40B permit granted by the City of Haverhill. Additional local funding came through the North Shore HOME Consortium. Mayor James Fiorentini thanked the single-family neighborhood for accepting the multi-family housing and noted that this project puts Haverhill’s affordable housing supply over the state’s minimum affordable housing threshold of 10 percent. “We aren’t going to stop there,” the mayor promised. “Having affordable places to live is key to our city’s future.”
Tenney Place I was financed primarily with state and federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits awarded by the Baker Administration’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). DHCD also provided federal HOME funds and additional funding through its Housing Stabilization Fund and Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is administered by MassHousing. DHCD Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay praised Haverhill’s mayor and team for understanding that “affordable housing is key to building a strong community."
Long-term MHP financing
Bank of America provided construction financing and was the tax credit lender. The Massachusetts Housing Partnership has committed $3.65 million in permanent financing. This is the fifth loan MHP has made to support affordable housing in Haverhill and the second loan it has made to Dakota Partners. It also provided long-term financing for Dakota’s Village Green Phase I, a 60-apartment development in Hyannis.
“Roberto and the team at Dakota are great to work with, as are the City of Haverhill and its mayor,” said MHP Executive Director Clark Ziegler. “In the coming years, over a million workers are set to retire and leave the work force in Massachusetts and we don’t have the people or the housing necessary to fill those jobs. To build the housing we need, we’re going to lead more leadership like we see in Haverhill.”
For more information about this development and MHP’s financing options, contact Director of Lending David Rockwell at drockwell@mhp.net or Senior Relationship Manager Nancy McCafferty at nmccafferty@mhp.net.