Welcome Home, Boston looks to increase affordable homeownership opportunities in the city

As Nathaniel Moore sees “expensive” homes being built across Boston, the Hyde Park resident said he feels he and fellow residents of color have been left in the dark on homeownership opportunities in the city.

Welcome Home, Boston, a program aimed at increasing the city’s affordable housing stock, could help change that narrative, Moore said Saturday while attending an open house on the initiative at the Boys & Girls Club in Dorchester.

The program, which Mayor Michelle Wu officially launched on Friday, looks to accelerate the creation of affordable homes on 150 city-owned parcels that are vacant in Boston’s neighborhoods. It’s got the backing of roughly $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan act funds.

Saturday’s open house focused on the project’s first phase, the development of 70 lots north and south of Harambee Park on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester and parts of Mattapan. More than 100 residents attended within the first half hour of the four-hour session, highlighting the need for affordable homeownership opportunities, city housing officials said.

“It is crucial,” Moore said of the program’s importance. “With inflation and everything going on, it is good to have some help, some assistance. You can’t do it all by yourself. This is perfect for us.”

The program looks to teach residents interested in becoming homeowners how to buy a home, repair their credit and pre-qualify for new city-backed mortgage products that will increase “the buying power” of eligible residents by as much 10% with forgivable grants of up to $100,000, according to initiative documents.

Once the homes, ranging from single-family homes to duplexes and townhouses, are constructed and ready for occupancy, a lottery will be held to determine their owners and residents, said Daniel Lesser, director of operations for the Mayor’s Office of Housing.

Qualified buyers must earn below 80 or 100% of the area median income.

“With the housing crisis being what it is in the city of Boston,” Lesser said, “having the opportunity for affordable homes, especially in areas where there are vacant lots, there is a tremendous need and desire.”

The city acquired most of the 70 vacant parcels it’s looking to develop in phase one through back taxes, and they’ve been in the city’s inventory for many years, said Jamie Smith, senior project manager for the Mayor’s Office of Housing.

All 150 parcels were deemed suitable for development of housing in the ‘Public Land for Public Good: Citywide Land Audit,” which the Boston Planning and Development Agency completed in June of all city-owned property.

The housing office plans on submitting a request for proposals to developers early next year, Smith said.

Based on federal coronavirus relief fund spending guidelines, the city must commit to specific projects by the end of 2024, with all money spent by the end of 2026.

City housing officials are targeting outreach to developers of color, and development teams that are at least 25% of color will be given additional preference, said Donald Wright, the housing office’s executive director of real estate management and sales.

Josue Velney, a developer for the Builders of Color Coalition, attended Saturday’s open house, looking to learn how his organization can work with the city if it gets the chance to get in on the project.

“We have seen a lot of people have to move outside of Boston because of how expensive it has gotten,” Velney said. “This could be an opportunity to keep the people who grew up in Boston, in Boston.”