The redevelopment of the former Whittier Street Apartments public housing in Roxbury is one of 28 affordable housing developments that will receive a state grant for construction according to a public announcement today by Governor Charlie Baker and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy.
The Whittier Street Apartments public housing project, near the intersection of Ruggles and Tremont Streets, is being redeveloped by Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) in partnership with the Madison Park Development Corporation and the Boston Housing Authority. According to the Governor’s announcement, “the Department of Housing and Community Development will support [Phase II] of Whittier with federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits and subsidy funds. The City of Boston also will support the project with local funding.”
The total housing construction will eventually create more than 500 total units of mixed-income housing, 200 of which are replacement apartments for residents. The subsidized Project-Based Section 8 replacement housing will be built both at the original Whittier property and off-site in the Whittier neighborhood.
Phase 1A of the redevelopment is already underway with demolition of a large part of the housing project and construction of three new buildings that will contain 92 apartments to be completed by the end of 2019. The state funding announced today will support Phase II of the redevelopment, under which 52 units will be built beginning in January of 2020. (Rendering at right)
The final phase will add more residential units and approximately 9,000 square feet of commercial/retail space with construction slated to begin January, 2021. All the development phases include active and passive recreation space.
In December, 2016 HUD awarded a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant to the Boston Housing Authority and City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development that will leverage an additional $260 million in private and public funds for commercial and residential development and public facilities in the Whittier neighborhood.
“The Whittier neighborhood is rich in amenities and is home to some of Boston’s anchor educational, civic and cultural institutions,” said Rodger Brown, POAH’s Managing Director of Real Estate Development. “This state funding will help us reconnect a vibrant mixed-income/mixed-use development to the neighborhood, while drawing on the community’s strengths to preserve its character.”
