LISC Expands Funding for Affordable Housing Near Transit

2.11.2020 — LISC StoriesPress ReleasesBoston, MA: HousingLendingTransit-Oriented Development

The LISC-administered Equitable-Transit Oriented Development Accelerator Fund (ETODAF) recently invested in The Neighborhood Developer's (TND) purchase of 181 Chestnut Street in Chelsea. With support from ETODAF, LISC, and CEDAC, TND acquired the naturally occurring affordable housing units, staving off the displacement of existing residents in a fast-changing neighborhood.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is pleased to announce an increase in the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund (ETODAF).

Created by LISC Boston, The Boston Foundation, and the Hyams Foundation, the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund is a revolving loan fund that has seeded the preservation or development of 22 affordable properties including more than 1,500 units near transit throughout Boston and Massachusetts since the Fund’s start in 2014. The fund provides critical early-stage financing to affordable housing developers, enabling the fast action needed to acquire and predevelop valuable parcels within walking distance of transit in hot markets, like 181 Chestnut in Chelsea.

Most recently the Fund invested, together with LISC and Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), in an acquisition loan to The Neighborhood Developers, Inc. (TND), a nonprofit community development corporation that works in Chelsea, Revere and Everett. TND used the financing to purchase 181 Chestnut Street, a 32-unit market-rate multifamily building in Chelsea near Bellingham Square, on the MBTA’s Silver Line. Given the pace of development in the neighborhood, the building would otherwise have sold to a profit-motivated purchaser who would likely have raised the existing below-market rents, resulting in displacement or financial instability for the existing tenants.

Partners Healthcare recently became a new investor in the Fund, joining the two existing foundations as a low-cost investor, with a $1.5 million investment, that matches the foundations' initial investments, making it an equal investment partner. Partners HealthCare, like many health institutions, understands that as much as 80% of health outcomes are determined by social factors such as whether one has safe, affordable housing, economic stability, access to healthy food and opportunities for recreation.These so-called social determinants of health are at the heart of comprehensive community development, the focus of LISC’s work for 40 years.Partners joins ProMedica, Sentara Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Atrium Health and other health systems around the country working with LISC to coinvest in healthy communities.Partners was particularly excited for the Fund to support stable, affordable housing in Chelsea where it is deeply invested at a property that is walking distance from the Mass General Hospital’s Chelsea HealthCare Center.

For more on the expansion of the Fund and 181 Chestnut in Chelsea, see the press releases from LISC and CEDAC, an interview with Karen Kelleher about the Fund and additional information below.