Housing is the most basic need in our society. Affordable housing even more so for the most under-served residents in our cities and Boston is no exception. Though affordable housing must work within the funding parameters, it does not mean that it has to be a cookie-cutter solution using the least expensive materials, often not well built and below market standards. Rather we should aim to include the latest improvements in sustainability and human well-being for such projects.
Affordable housing at Eliot Congregational Church in Roxbury, which is a neighborhood within the city of Boston, MA, will serve the underprivileged inner-city community in Roxbury. In addition to affordable housing units, the large, expansive existing church building can be leveraged to provide community support spaces often necessary but often overlooked with affordable housing; business incubator resource center, after-school activities, and community food pantry, to name a few which many non-profit and faith-based organizations provide. The project is intended to provide a total of twenty-four affordable housing units across an addition and renovation that would work with proposed project source funding common to affordable housing development and includes operational budget for long term viability. Ten percent of the units are planned to be affordable to households making very low income (about $30k per year) while the remaining ninety percent of the units are intended to be affordable to households making about $55 to $70 per year, well within Boston area’s low-income thresholds.
