Connecting residents with community

CHARLESTOWN ---- In explaining why Bridgeview Center has such a varied mix of apartments, Dafna Krouk-Gordon began by talking about why she founded Toward Independent Living and Learning Inc. (TILL) in the first place.

“TILL was founded in response to the deplorable condition to which we had let our state schools for people with mental retardation get, to the point that over 8,000 people were being warehoused in large institutions all over Massachusetts just because they were seen to be a little bit different and not fitting into society," said Krouk-Gordon at grand opening ceremonies on Oct. 27. "This practice was quite a disservice to these people."

"Deinstitutionalization of state schools began in 1972,” she continued.   “Together with other colleagues who felt equally horrified by the conditions to which the state schools had deteriorated, we began building a new community based system. Bridgeview is the latest expression of the belief that mixed-use housing, together with affordable units for singles and families, coupled with a group home for five people with developmental disabilities, embodies the concept of being a vital part of a neighborhood and a community.”

Located on Rutherford Ave. next to Bunker Hill Community College, Bridgeview Center is a five-story building with 61 affordable apartments, 6,000 square feet of nonprofit commercial space and a five-bedroom group home. It is four-tenths of a mile from the Orange Line's Community College T stop.

Twenty-nine two-bedroom and 15 three-bedroom units are affordable at or below 60 percent of area median income (AMI). One two-bedroom unit is affordable at or below 30 percent AMI. Of the 17 one-bedroom units, five are project-based Section 8, seven are affordable at or below 60 percent AMI and five are affordable at or below 30 percent AMI. Five units have been set aside for residents receiving services from the Department of Mental Health and three units are for households with a physically disabled family member.

The five-bedroom group home has been seamlessly included within the 61 apartments and this was evident immediately upon arrival as guests took an elevator from the ground floor to a first floor corridor where two apartment doors were open. The first led to a spacious two-bedroom apartment. The second presumably led to a similar apartment but instead opened up into a large kitchen and living room congregate area where guests were gathering for grand opening ceremonies. Inside this unit was an interior corridor leading to five small bedrooms with large windows looking south out onto a courtyard and Bunker Hill CC athletic fields.

“We try to make our buildings accessible, while at the same time not making them feel like you’re in a nursing home or rehab,” explained Krouk-Gordon after the event.  “We try to create traffic flow in the hallways and to the common rooms so it does not feel like bedrooms surrounding a nursing station. We want to emphasize community living, cooperative cooking and creating relationships in common areas that become the main life of the house.”

TILL Inc., which provides a wide range of services for the developmentally disabled, co-developed the property with developers Bryon Gilchrest, Jim Gribaudo and Feldman Development Partners. It was funded primarily with federal low-income housing tax credits awarded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), with additional funding from the state’s Housing Stabilization, Community Based Housing, and Facilities Consolidation funds. It also received $1 million from the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is administered by MassHousing.

The City of Boston was also a major supporter. Bridgeview Center was built on land previously owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. In addition, the city provided $1 million in Federal HOME funds and $750,000 from its housing trust fund.

“Thanks to TILL for the work they are doing on behalf of the citizens of Boston and also thanks to the BRA for making available a valuable piece of land for this type of housing,” said Sheila Dillon, director of the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development. Dillon said 1,900 applied and 800 qualified for the Bridgeview units.

MHP is providing a $3.9 million long-term loan from its bank-funded loan pool. An experienced provider of debt financing to projects financed with 9 percent federal tax credits, MHP has now provided over $480 million in financing for 177 tax-credit projects and over 9,400 units of housing. Overall, MHP has provided over $1.1 billion in loans and commitments for the financing of over 22,000 units of rental housing, most of it affordable.

“We love the continuum of housing that TILL has set up here,” said David Rockwell, MHP’s director of lending. “The bringing together of different types of housing under one roof is really impressive.”

For more information about Bridgeview Center and MHP’s financing options, contact David Rockwell at drockwell@mhp.net or 857-317-8570.