WORCESTER – Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Aaron Gornstein announced over $5 million in Community Investment Tax Credits (CITC) to 44 community organizations across the Commonwealth yesterday during a Rural Housing Summit at the College of the Holy Cross.
Of the 44 recipients, 42 are Community Development Corporations – including the Hilltown Community Development Corporation of Chesterfield – while the remaining two are Community Support Organizations. These organizations will distribute the tax credits to investors in exchange for donations.
According to a HCD statement, the tax credits have been provided to “increase the capacity of these community-based organizations so they can boost housing and economic activity in their communities.”
“This unique public-private partnership will help to spur economic activity and innovative projects in cities and towns across the Commonwealth,” said Gornstein. “By partnering with local Community Development Corporations and private investors, we are creating greater opportunity for low and moderate income families in Massachusetts and helping to revitalize communities at the same time.”
“The Community Investment Tax Credit will leverage private dollars for the state’s best CDCs so they can undertake high-impact, resident led community development,” said Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Mass. Association of Community Development Corporations. “What is particularly exciting about this program is the way it brings together the public sector, the private sector and local communities to forge creative, bottom-up solutions that yield real results. This program will help to ensure that every community and every family has a better opportunity to fully participate in our economy.”
The CITC program was created in 2012 through the Jobs Bill signed by Governor Deval Patrick and is available to CDCs through 2019.
According to a statement from Gornstein’s office, the Patrick administration has invested over $1 billion in state and federal resources since 2007 in an effort to create 24,000 units of housing across the Commonwealth, 22,000 of which are affordable.
Of the $5 million awarded yesterday, $60,000 has been awarded to the Hilltown Community Development Corporation, which develops housing for low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers, rental housing for low and moderate-income tenants, and affordable housing for senior citizens.
Hilltown CDC Executive Director David Christopolis said yesterday that this is the second year the HCDC has been awarded this amount and that only CDCs that are certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are eligible for the funding.
“We became certified a year or so ago in anticipation of the law being passed,” he said. “It’s a two-to-one deal in that we’re able to give $60,000 to donors who provide us with a ‘qualified donation’ of $1,000 or more.”
Christopolis said that donors must file taxes in Massachusetts to be able to receive the 50 percent tax refund on their donation.
In total, the Hilltown CDC has developed eight apartments in Chesterfield, four two-bedroom apartments in Huntington and six apartments in Williamsburg, along with 11 single-family condominiums and 10 apartments in the Williamsburg village of Haydenville.
Christopolis said that the HCDC hasn’t reached it’s $60,000 mark for the previous year but that it is getting “pretty close” and that once it gives out all 2014 credits, it will begin ithe 2015 allocation.
“It’s a great program that incentivizes people to invest in our work,” he added before stating that, while the majority of efforts are concentrated in the northern-most hilltowns, the HCDC is working on collaborating with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) on future projects in Huntington.
“When it comes to the southern hilltowns, the PVPC does Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) work, which is what we do in the northern hilltowns. Because they’re there, we don’t do a lot of community organizing work,” said Christopolis. “We’ve only done the one four unit building (in Huntington), but it is definitely a market I’m interested in.”
“The tax credit program could be a vehicle over the next couple of years, if we’re successful in building our capacity, that market could be an area we could do more development in,” he said. “I know it’s a need town.”
“We definitely recognize it as an underserved area and if I can build enough capacity to do more work there, we absolutely will,” he said.
