For Immediate Release: 3/5/2020 12:54 pm
The City of Worcester was one of nine Gateway Cities to receive a $275,000 Gateways Housing Rehabilitation Program grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development as announced by Governor Baker on February 28.
In Worcester, this funding will be used specifically to address two to four unit buildings which have housing and sanitary code issues, or are at risk of losing property insurance.
The City has placed a strong emphasis on improving the existing multi-family housing stock to create safe and affordable housing. Last fall, City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. and Mayor Joseph M. Petty announced the creation of the Worcester Housing Now Initiative, which will direct U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant funding to help rehabilitate two to four unit buildings.
“Two years ago I announced that we would be focusing on our three-deckers and older construction. Even as we’re building new units and repurposing older buildings to create new housing, we need to remember that the majority of our rental stock is at least a century old,” said Mayor Joseph M. Petty. “Last October we announced the Worcester Housing Now initiative that would reinvest in our three-decker neighborhoods and simultaneously create new affordable units. This grant is another tool in the tool box and I want to thank Senator Chandler for her help making this happen.”
A large portion of the city’s housing stock was built during the Industrial Revolution era (1880-1920) and suffers from deferred maintenance and long-term disinvestment. The
city’s renewed focus is to improve all housing stock to meet current building, sanitary and fire codes and provide citizens with an affordable and healthy living environment.
“Working in collaboration with Mayor Petty, we’re taking an innovative and aggressive approach to provide more affordable and safer housing for the residents of our city,” said City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. “We thank the Baker-Polito Administration as well as the leadership of Senator Harriette Chandler for their constant support of our housing efforts at the state level.”
This new program will allow an additional 10-15 units that contain either sanitary or building code violations to be rehabilitated that would have otherwise not been funded strictly with HUD funding.
The Gateways Housing Rehabilitation Program along with the Worcester Housing Now Initiative accompany the recent $5.6 million Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Grant awarded to the City from HUD.
“Thanks to the City Manager and Mayor’s leadership in creating the new Worcester Housing Now Initiative, we can ensure that our city is continuing to create and preserve much needed affordable housing,” said Senator Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester). “I am proud to have secured these state funds to finance the rehabilitation of Worcester’s aging housing stock because I believe that every person should be afforded the right to stable housing upon which they can build a happy, healthy life.”
Other Gateway Cities that received the grant are: Agawam, Brockton, Fitchburg, Greenfield Lawrence, Lynn, Pittsfield and Taunton. In total, there are 26 Gateway Cities throughout the Commonwealth.
