Press Release  Governor Healey, City of Boston Announce $10.5 Million Partnership to Build 110 New Homes in Roxbury

Boston — Governor Maura Healey, MassHousing and the City of Boston today announced a combined $10.5 million public investment that will advance the construction of 110 new rental homes at 20 Malcolm X Boulevard in Roxbury.  

Funding from Governor Healey’s Momentum Fund and Boston’s Housing Accelerator Fund, in what officials described as a first-in-the-nation state and local co-investment, will support a development led by SV+Partners and Trax Development that will transform an underutilized surface parking lot in Roxbury’s Nubian Square into a vibrant new mixed-income housing community with affordable and market-rate apartments, public space and neighborhood amenities. 

“Our Administration is committed to building more housing, lowering costs and creating more opportunities for people across our state, and that requires new partnerships and innovative financing tools, said Governor Maura Healey. “We created the Momentum Fund To help move housing projects into construction faster. By bringing together state, local and private investment, this partnership will help transform an underutilized site into new housing, create jobs and support the future of Nubian Square. This is exactly the kind of collaboration we need to help unlock more housing production and create more opportunities for people across our state.” 

“This partnership is a great example of what can happen when state, local and private partners work together toward a shared goal,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “Projects like this help create more housing opportunities while investing in the long-term strength of neighborhoods like Nubian Square. 

“Making Massachusetts more affordable starts with building more homes people can actually reach,” said Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Juana Matias. “Through the Momentum Fund, we are lowering barriers to construction, unlocking mixed-income housing and creating more homes for families, seniors and young adults across the state.” 

“This project will prevent displacement and add more housing for older adults, working families and longtime residents of Nubian Square,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “As families face increasing pressure on household budgets and growing housing costs, I’m excited to join efforts with Governor Maura Healey and the state in this innovative partnership to strengthen our communities by building more housing.” 

“Housing is a fundamental human right, and building more safe, affordable housing across Roxbury and the Commonwealth is critical to economic justice and lowering costs for workers and families,” said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07). “This groundbreaking new investment is exactly what we need in this moment and will help revitalize Nubian Square while addressing the housing and affordability crises across the Massachusetts 7th. I’m so grateful for the leadership and partnership of Governor Healey, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, Mayor Wu, and our housing advocates on this critical issue.” 

“Nubian Square has always been a center of culture, community, and resilience, and this investment represents the kind of intentional partnership we need to ensure longtime residents can continue to call this neighborhood home. For far too long, communities like Roxbury have experienced disinvestment while watching development happen around them instead of with them,” said State Senator Liz Miranda. “This project is an opportunity to create new housing, activate underutilized space, and invest in the future of our community in a way that reflects both equity and dignity. I’m grateful to the Healey-Driscoll Administration, the City of Boston, and all of the partners helping move this vision forward.” 

The Healey-Driscoll Administration’s statewide housing plan found that Massachusetts must create 222,000 new homes by 2035 to support the state’s economy and meet housing needs across all income levels.  

Created through Governor Healey’s Affordable Homes Act, the Momentum Fund is a new financing tool designed to help build more mixed-income housing across Massachusetts. Unlike traditional grant programs, the fund uses low-cost public capital alongside private investment to help already approved housing developments move into construction more quickly.  

The City of Boston plans to invest approximately $50 million from its Housing Accelerator Fund alongside the state’s Momentum Fund to support several housing developments across Boston. With today’s announcement, Boston becomes the first co-investor in the Momentum Fund. 

By combining city and state investment funding, the partnership will help support more housing projects and create more homes than either fund could independently. 

The development of 20 Malcolm X Boulevard is the first transaction to blend state and city investment equity through the Momentum Fund partnership. Additional funding commitments are expected to follow. 

“We are confronting our state’s housing crisis through creativity, financial innovation and collaboration,” said MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay. “The Momentum Fund is a nationally leading housing finance platform, and this new co-investment partnership with the City of Boston will allow us to deepen our impact. Working together, we will create more homes and more construction jobs, and do more to tackle our shared housing challenges, than would be possible working on our own.”  

“This investment is especially meaningful to us in Boston because these new homes will stand on a site where a past neighborhood was bulldozed by urban renewal and replaced with a parking lot decades ago,” said Boston Housing Authority Administrator Kenzie Bok. “This investment will help fast-track much-needed new housing in Roxbury, deliver immediate benefits to the neighborhood, and provide a public equity stake that can be reinvested again in the future to build even more homes.” 

 “20 Malcolm X presents a unique opportunity to deliver lasting investment, jobs and quality homes to the heart of Nubian Square – all the while preserving the historic former Roxbury Boys Club building onsite, which was converted to office use in the early 2000’s, and is now home to MassHire Boston ABCD Career Center, the Social Security Administration and Massachusetts DCAMM’s Committee for Public Counsel Services,” said Jacob Vance, Principal of SV+Partners. “The takeout financing provided by the MassHousing Momentum Fund and Boston’s Housing Accelerator Fund is integral to the success of the project, and we are proud to be the first to put this state-city partnership to work.  We are grateful to Governor Healey, Mayor Wu, MassHousing, and our neighbors in Roxbury for the trust they have placed in our team and are looking forward to seeing this vision come to fruition." 

The development will transform vacant land and portions of an existing surface parking lot in the heart of Nubian Square into a new six-story mixed-income housing community with 22 affordable rental homes and 88 market-rate apartments. 

The project’s architect and interior designer is EMBARC, Inc., who has programmed thoughtfully designed amenities including a sixth-floor sky deck, rear courtyard, fitness center, resident lounge with kitchen, co-working space, and game room. The development will also create a landscaped public plaza with seating adjacent to the commercial space and an MBTA bus stop on Malcolm X Boulevard. 

All 22 affordable rental units will be deed-restricted and affordable to residents earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. The City of Boston will work with the project’s sponsor and the administrators of mobile housing vouchers to make a portion of the affordable units more readily available to lower-income households with mobile vouchers. 

In addition to committing $50 million from the Accelerator Fund as co-investment capital alongside the state’s Momentum Fund, the City of Boston also intends to use Accelerator Fund dollars to support mixed-income redevelopment within the Boston Housing Authority’s portfolio, and to explore innovative homeownership development models. Boston is funding BHA and homeownership developments outside of its partnership with the state’s Momentum Fund. 

MassHousing aims to support the creation of more than 1,000 new multifamily housing units through $50 million in state investment equity, while partnering with outside investors to help finance additional mixed-income housing developments across Massachusetts. 

To date, Momentum Fund equity and associated mortgage financing is supporting the development of a total of 453 mixed-income rental homes located in Roxbury, Grafton and Milton. Additional financing commitments will follow in the coming months.   

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