Community-Wealth City: Boston, Massachusetts

As the largest city in New England, and one of its oldest, Boston has long been the region's economic and cultural hub. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, the city's population is 50% white, 25% African American, 16% Hispanic, and 9% Asian. People of Irish and Italian ancestry comprise about one quarter of the city (16% and 8% respectively), while people of West Indian ancestry are the third largest group with 6.4% of the city's population. Among the nation's 50 most populated cities, Boston ranks fifth in the percentage of adults identifying themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (12.3%).

Boston, with an estimated 2007 population of 610,000, remains one of the twenty-five largest cities in the country. While lower than its peak population of 800,000 in 1950, Boston has been steadily growing since 1980. The Greater Boston region is also home to nearly 4.5 million people - the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country.

Boston has had a history of being home to many firsts, including the United States' first college - Harvard College (1636) - and the first subway system. In 2007, Mayor Menino made Boston the first major city in the nation to require development projects to meet the LEED Silver Standard. As a result, the Department of Neighborhood Development has adopted new design standards that will require projects to adopt the Energy Star Standard in addition to LEED Silver, reducing maintenance costs and promoting sustainability in all new affordable housing construction.

Boston is also home to many community partnerships: one such joint venture is the Fairmount Line Collaborative. Bringing together the Mattapan CDC, Dorchester Bay EDC, Codman Square NDC and the Southwest Boston CDC, the Fairmount Line Collaborative is dedicated to advocating for transit equity and to develop a collective development strategy for land adjacent to the current Fairmount/Indigo MBTA line. The Collaborative has been successful in getting the State to appropriate $14 million to modernize the two stops - Morton Street Station and the Cummings Highway station - in the Mattapan neighborhood.

Partners for Jackson is another collaboration of community development corporations, non-profit groups and private developers, including Urban Edge CDC and Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, committed to creating a community-driven redevelopment plan for Jackson Square. Designated master developer by the Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Mark Malone, Partners for Jackson is utilizing Jackson Square's strategic placement to the Jackson Square MBTA station to create an 11.5-acre mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented development community. Helping reconnect the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods, the plan includes 420 new homes (60% affordable), a new youth and family center, small and mid-scale retail space, and a new plaza and other pedestrian-friendly improvements

An overview of community wealth building efforts follows:

Community Development Corporations

Asian Community Development Corporation
www.asiancdc.org
Established in 1988, the Asian Community Development Corporation was formed to address the lack of affordable housing options for Asian immigrants and other low-income families. With a focus on preserving and revitalizing Boston’s Chinatown community, the group has developed more than 500 affordable housing units, developed a home ownership program that has helped double the rate of ownership in Chinatown and created a youth development program for low-income youth from Boston and urban Asian American (AA) communities in the metropolitan area. The CDC has also started an Energy Efficient Program in partnership with Citizens Programs Corporation and CITGO-Venezuela that is estimated to save residents $14.9 million and cut their energy use by 165 million kilowatt-hours over the life of the program.

Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation
www.dbedc.org
Founded in 1979 by local civic groups, Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation works to create economic development opportunities and construct affordable housing options for the diverse community in Boston and Dorchester neighborhoods. To date, the group has developed more than 930 units of affordable housing, including two housing cooperatives, and created six commercial buildings to anchor businesses that have provided more than 300 jobs. Its Small Business Program has directly lent more than $650,000, created and retained 488 jobs, and packaged over $2.5 million for larger deals to other lenders and banks.

Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción
www.iba-etc.org
Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción works to enhance the quality of life for the majority low-income Latino residents of Villa Victoria – a 435-unit affordable housing community of 1100 residents in South Boston. It also continues to promote the values of Villa Victoria – a community’s whose colorful evolution occurred during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s after it developed a strategy that incorporated quality housing, social services, economic development, and the arts. To date, the group has developed and preserved more than 200 affordable housing units and has helped create the only gallery in New England exclusively dedicated to promoting local, national, and international Latino artists.

Mattapan Community Development Corporation
www.mattapancdc.org
Established in 1996, Mattapan Community Development Corporation (MCDC) is dedicated to improving the social and economic conditions of those who live in Mattapan. The CDC has recently undertaken an ambitious new plan to revitalized the neighborhood, beginning with the Morton Street Homes project – a new 4-story mix-use building within walking distance of the new Morton Street rail stop and featuring permanently affordable housing units. To date, it manages 24 affordable housing units.

Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH)
www.noahcdc.org
Serving East Boston since 1987, the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) started as a two-person organization operating from the basement of a church and has evolved into a multi-service non-profit still focused on preserving affordable housing and building safe and healthy neighborhoods. To date, NOAH owns and rents 103 affordable units across 17 properties, has assisted over 650 families in purchasing their first home, and has helped redeveloped six school yards, a four and a half acre waterfront “Urban Wild” park, and a youth-run community garden.

Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation
www.nuestracdc.org
Founded in 1981 by residents of the Dudley Neighborhood, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation works to build the wealth and enhance the physical, economic and social well-being of Roxbury and other underserved populations in greater Boston by developing affordable housing, increasing local economic development, encouraging individual asset-building, and improving housing security and stability. To date, Nuestra Comunidad has produced 887 units of affordable housing.

Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation
www.swbcdc.org
Formed in 2001 by concerned residents, Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation serves the communities of Hyde Park and Roslindale by preserving affordable housing and promoting economic development. In Hyde Park, it has focused on transit-oriented development, targeting vacant and underutilized lots near the Fairmount/Indigo MBTA line. Another CDC initiative includes the Hyde Park Arts Initiative, a partnership of local arts organizations, businesses and nonprofit groups aimed at utilizing the arts for community economic growth.

Community Development Financial Institutions

Boston Community Capital
www.bostoncommunitycapital.org
Founded in 1985, Boston Community Capital’s community development loan fund has lent out over $200 million, financed 8,500 units of affordable housing, and helped create or maintain over 1,300 jobs that provide a living wage to an underserved population. Through its venture capital fund, the CDFI also invests directly in companies that provide social as well as economic returns. To date, Boston Community Capital has over $93 million in assets under management.

Housing Partnership Network
www.housingpartnership.net
Formed in 1990, the Housing Partnership Network is a business alliance of the nation’s top performing nonprofit development organizations, allowing them to share the innovations from each organization’s local practices and leverage their resources more efficiently. One of its enterprises - the Housing Partnership Fund - is a $30 million CDFI-certified lending institution that has provided financing to thirty Network members to build or acquire more than 11,000 affordable homes valued at more than $850 million. Another enterprise is the Housing Partnership Insurance– the first captive insurance company owned by and operated for nonprofit affordable housing organizations. The insurance company pools risk, saving members more than $1 million a year in premiums, while providing liability coverage for 40,000 affordable apartments developed and managed by the Network’s members.

Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation
www.mhic.com
Founded in 1990 by a consortium of banks and other corporate investors, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation is non-profit, certified-CDFI that manages a loan program, equity investment program, and a New Markets Tax Credit program. Raising $718 million from investors to fund these programs, MHIC has provided $443 million through its loan program, $524 million through its equity investment program, and $257 million through its New Markets Tax Credit program to needing community businesses. To date, the CDFI has had zero loan losses over its 13-year history, has been self-sustaining since its outset, and has had 53-perccent of the total development costs for projects go to minority-owned businesses.

Community Land Trusts

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
www.dsni.org
Founded in 1984 in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, by 1988 Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative had succeeded in getting the city to grant it eminent domain power so the group could acquire vacant land through a community land trust to implement its community revitalization plan. To date, 144 new homes and two community facilities have been built on land held by the trust.

Cooperatives

Boston Building Materials Co-op
www.bbmc.com
Boston Building Materials Co-op is a not-for-profit consumer co-op that is dedicated to providing high quality materials and teaching people how to maintain their homes. Governed by its members but opened to the public, the co-op sells products in the following home improvement sections: window repair, kitchen and bath, windows and doors, storm products, weatherization, and green products.

Boston Community Cooperatives
www.bcc.coop
Striving to build community through cooperative living, neighborhood improvement, and collective action, Boston Community Cooperatives acts as an umbrella organization to provide infrastructure to housing cooperatives. To date, the co-op owns one house – Seedpod, a 12-bedroom house near Field’s Corner in Boston – and is partnering with other housing cooperatives in Boston to expand to multiple houses.

Cambridge Cooperative Club
www.cambridgecoop.wordpress.com
Founded in 1963, Cambridge Cooperative Club is a 10-person housing cooperative between Harvard and Porter Square in Cambridge – part of the Greater Boston area. They are dedicated to living ecologically sustainable lives, learning from each other, governing by consensus, and contributing to the local community.

Harvest Co-op Markets
www.harvestcoop.com
Founded in 1971, Harvest Co-op Markets is a member-owned cooperative with two stores in the greater Boston area: one in Cambridge’s Central Square, and one in Jamaica The co-op supports organic and sustainable agricultures, local farmers and food producers, and fair trade businesses. Unlike many co-ops that give a discount at the point of sale, Harvest returns a rebate based on any profit annually, enabling a more sustainable financial model for the co-op.

Employee Ownership

Boston Common Asset Management
www.bostoncommonasset.com
Formed in 2002, Boston Common Asset Management is an employee-owned social investment firm seeking sustainable, long-term capital appreciation through investments in high quality and socially responsibly enterprises. The firm manages approximately $700 million in assets.

Shawmut Design & Construction
www.shawmut.com
Founded in 1982 by Jim Ansara and a handful of employees, Shawmut Design and Construction is now an entirely employee-owned national construction management firm with headquarters in Boston and offices in New York, Providence, Las Vegas, Atlantic City and New Haven. In the past decade, Shawmut’s revenues have grown by over 900% and, in 2008, it worked on construction projects worth nearly $900 million. Also in 2008, Shawmut completed its first ever Community Impact Report (available on website), detailing how the company incorporates social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and cultivation of diversity in the workplace.

Green Collar Jobs

Boston Natural Areas Network
www.bostonnatural.org
Founded in 1977, the Boston Natural Areas Network is dedicated to preserving and expanding urban open space – community gardens, urban wilds, and greenways – through community organizing and development, acquisition and ownership. As of 2006, the group had preserved 40 community gardens, has gained legal protection for 831 acres of urban wilds, and has helped create the Neponset River and East Boston Greenways. Partnering with many non-profit organizations and government agencies, the Network also coordinates activities related to all of the Boston area's community and school gardens, involving over 10,000 individuals and families, many of them low-income.

The Food Project
www.thefoodproject.org
Striving to increase food security through creating sustainable, local food systems, The Food Project grows nearly a quarter-million pounds of organic food each year, selling that food through Community Supported Agriculture crop “shares” and farmer markets, and partners with urban gardeners to help them remediate their soil. In addition, the group has two educational programs - a Summer and Year Youth Program for 90 diverse Greater Boston youth ages 14-17, which teaches life and job skills, and the BLAST (Building Local Agricultural Systems Today) program, which trains young adults ages 14 to 24 from across the country and the world to develop their skills as food systems practitioners and leaders.

Groundwork Somerville
www.groundworksomerville.org
Modeled after successful Groundwork organizations in the United Kingdom and an affiliate of Groundwork USA, a network of organizations established by the National Park Service, Groundwork Somerville is a community-based organization who mission is to promote the reuse of former brownfield sites and community revitalization in Somerville. Receiving the 2008 CARE Grant from the EPA, Groundwork Somerville is partnering with Somerville Community Corporation, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership and the Somerville Community Health Agenda of the Cambridge Health Alliance over the next two years to develop a process involving residents in making land-use decisions along the green line corridors through Somerville.

Individual Development Accounts

Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation
www.allstonbrightoncdc.org
Formed in 1980, Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation has worked to build affordable housing, create green space, foster a healthy local environment and help develop ways to improve economic self-sufficiency in the Allston-Brighton community of Boston. The group has been a state leader in individual development accounts, founding and leading the MIDAS (Massachusetts IDAs) Collaborative, comprised of IDA programs across the state. Since its founding, ABCDC has also renovated and preserved more than 370 units of affordable housing, helped more than 600 low and moderate-income families purchase homes, and assists more than 6,000 people each year with various programs.

Program Related Investments

Massachusetts Community Economic Development Assistance Corp.
www.cedac.org
The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation is a quasi-public intermediary that finances community development projects in low-income areas of metropolitan Boston. A 10-year, $1.5 million program-related investment from the Boston Foundation made in 2004 is expected to result in an additional 1125 units of housing for Greater Boston low-income individuals.

Social Enterprise

Pine Street Inn
www.pinestreetinn.org
Founded in 1969, Pine Street Inn provides homeless individuals with shelter, services, and the means to become self-sufficient. Pine Street serves more than 1,300 each day, supplies 500 individuals and families with affordable housing, and, in 1998, began a program called STRIVE (Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees), a national job readiness program specifically tailored for homeless individuals. An average of 150 men and women annually complete programs in culinary training, building maintenance, literacy and other practical skill development through STRIVE.

Socially Responsible Investment

KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.
www.kld.com
Established in 1988, KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is an independent research company that provides global research and index products to facilitate the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into the investment process. Currently, 31 of the top 50 institutional money managers worldwide incorporate KLD’s socially responsible research into their investment decisions.

Walden Asset Management
www.waldenassetmgmt.com
Founded in 1975, Walden has grown to have $1.5 billion in assets under management as of 2006. Walden and its clients have been involved in shareholder engagement with companies through dialogue and shareholder resolutions as well as social screening of their portfolios. Many Walden clients also participate in community investing. Since 2004, Walden has been a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management Company, an employee-owned firm.

State and Local Investment

Create Boston
www.createboston.com
Believing that creativity is the core of Boston’s economic vitality and key to its economic growth, Create Boston focuses on helping expand the local sector of creative industries – music, film, design, media, and crafts. As a subsidiary of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Create Boston provides local businesses with what they need to succeed – a connection to training programs, low-interest cash for capital improvements, or even a curb cut or loading zone.

Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations
www.macdc.org
Founded in 1982, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations is dedicated to supporting the affordable housing, economic development and community building strategies of its current 86 members, including 60 CDC members and 26 associate members. To date, the statewide association members have created 5,186 units of affordable housing, creating or preserving nearly 8,000 jobs, successfully helped pass legislation for $30 million for Brownfields redevelopment, and have attracted more than $828 million in private and public investments to local communities.

Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation
www.mtdc.com
In 1978, Massachusetts' state government established the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation to address the "capital gap" for start-up and expansion of early-stage technology companies. Since that time, it has pursued four basic objectives: 1) To help create primary employment in Massachusetts; 2) To attract and leverage private investment in state companies; 3) To foster the application of technological innovations where state companies are, or can be, market leaders; and 4) To nurture entrepreneurship among state citizens to support long-term economic development.

Transit Oriented Development

Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation
www.csndc.com
Serving the Codman Square Neighborhood for more than 25 years, the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation carries out it mission to improve the community’s quality of life and stabilization through affordable housing, economic development, and community building initiatives. Pushing smart growth and transit oriented development concepts, the group is advocating for transit equity - five new stops in their neighborhood - and new land and buildings around the line for development. Bringing together planning, community process and real estate development in a strategic effort for productive development with a strong multiplier effect, CSNDC has produced an award-winning document of its vision – Boston’s Newest Smart Growth Corridor.

Fenway Community Development Corporation
www.fenwaycdc.org
Strengthening the Fenway neighborhood for more than 35 years, the Fenway Community Development Corporation has developed over 560 affordable homes, two playgrounds and after-school space, and has helped stabilize the neighborhood by increasing owner-occupancy by 35%. One of its most recent initiatives is its Urban Village Plan, organized by residents to transform the “strip” of gas stations, fast food huts, and parking lots along Boylston Street into a neighborhood Main Street with 2,500 units of mixed-income housing, ground floor retail, a neighborhood school and a community center. This plan, which incorporates a smart-growth and transit-oriented vision for this community, has started taken shape with the development of new mixed-used projects.

Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation
www.jpndc.org
Founded in 1977, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation benefits low-income Jamaica Plain residents through enabling community empowerment, fostering economic development, and developing affordable housing. To date, the group has developed more than 480 homes and created more than 1,000 jobs, As a member of Partners for Jackson, a collaborative effort to revitalize Jackson Square, JPNDC helped formulate a community-based plan focused on transit oriented development. Utilizing the proximity to the Jackson Square MTBA line, the proposal includes 420 new homes (60% affordable), a new youth and family center, small and mid-scale retail space, and a new plaza and other pedestrian-friendly improvements. The first development, including the construction of a 100 houses, will occur in 2009.

Urban Edge CDC
www.urbanedge.org
Assisting the diverse communities in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, Urban Edge CDC focuses on developing stable communities through constructing affordable housing and assisting small businesses and potential new homebuyers. As a member of Partners for Jackson - a team of community development corporations, non-profits and private developers - authorized by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Urban Edge has worked on the redevelopment of 11.5 acres near Jackson Square, creating a model for mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented development. Nearly a quarter of the 400 housing units (60% of which will be affordable) created by this project will be constructed in 2009.

University Partnerships

Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service
www.activecitizen.tufts.edu
Based on Tufts Medford/Somerville campus, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service supports faculty research in the area of civic engagement, partners to help the needs of local non-profits, and is active promoting stronger, healthier, and safer communities within the Medford, Somerville, Boston’s Chinatown and Graton neighborhoods. Providing a supplementary education to students at Tuft’s seven schools, Tisch College engages student through many different civic programs and projects. These projects include having students work with Groundwork Somerville, assessing Somerville’s green infrastructure, and working with the Community Language Bank, translating short documents for local businesses and helping turn language differences from a barrier into a community building opportunity.

MIT@Lawrence
www.mitatlawrence.net
Promoting civic engagement and partnerships between the students, faculty, and staff of MIT@Lawrence and Lawrence community residents and organizations, MIT@Lawrence promotes locally-led collective asset-building projects and research in three areas: affordable housing production; asset building as a economic and community development strategy; and youth pathways to education, careers, and community. Some of the projects and research include partnering with the City of Lawrence Community Development Department to create a strategy to generate a more diverse, affordable mix of housing types and implementing a Green Jobs Initiative, which will identify green business opportunities in Lawrence and leverage the city’s “green business friendly” atmosphere competitively.

University of Massachusetts, Boston, College of Public and Community Service
www.cpcs.umb.edu/main-nonflash.html
Founded in 1972 to extend the University’s land grant mission by focusing on public and community service in urban areas and providing a liberal arts education with training for professional careers, the College of Public and Community Service includes programs that provide opportunities for field work and work experience. Comprised by a very diverse community, of which a majority are lower income, over 60% are women, and over 40% minority, the College has sponsored many field projects, including a participatory action research project with residents of Harbor Point housing development to assess their health concerns and what makes a “healthy” community and working with the Coalition to Protect Chinatown, preparing impact assessments and developing organizing strategies.