DHCD and MassHousing Announce $10 million for Community Scale Housing Initiative - February 28, 2017

On Februray 24th, the Department of Housing and Community Development  (DHCD) and MassHousing announced a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for a new Community Scale Housing Initiative (CSHI) - a collaboration between the agencies to support small-scale projects in smaller cities and towns across the Commonwealth.  

The new program is a special initiative to address the need for smaller scale affordable housing projects that are sized to fit well within the host community. The new initiative will provide $10 million in funding for these projects. The funding will consist of $5 million from DHCD’s Housing Stabilization Fund and a $5 million investment from MassHousing’s Opportunity Fund.

CSHI funds are intended for projects outside of Boston with between 5 and 20 units. Proposed projects must be new construction or adaptive re-use; have at least 20% of the total units affordable to households earning at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI); and a project must include a financial commitment from the host community. 

Pre-applications for the CSHI program are due on March 29, 2017, with full application due on May 17, 2017. MassHousing and DHCD expect to make award announcements on July 12, 2017.

If you have any questions about the NOFA, please contact Lynn Shields from MassHousing at (617) 854-1381.  If you have a project that fits the NOFA criteria and wish to attend a CSHI information session on March 15, please contact Bertha Borin at bertha.borin@state.ma.us to reserve a seat.  The information session will be held at the Shillman House, 49 Edmands Road, Framingham, MA, and will begin at 11:30 am.

To download a copy of the NOFA for the CSHI program, please click here.