Nuestra Comunidad awarded $2 million to build 16 affordable for-sale homes in Roxbury

A rendering shows the proposed development on the Kasanof site facing Edgewood Street.

Nuestra Comunidad has been awarded $2 million in funding from the Boston Department of Neighborhood Development to build 16 homeownership opportunities on a long-vacant lot on Edgewood Street, just off of Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury. The new homes will be affordable to moderate-income families.

“This award shows that Mayor Walsh is keeping his commitment to provide workforce homeownership opportunities,” said Nuestra Executive Director David Price.

Price says the homeownership development moves forward Nuestra Comunidad’s long-term efforts to bring new investment to the Blue Hill Avenue between Dudley and Quincy Streets. In 2010, Nuestra Comunidad completed its Atkins Apartments development at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Edgewood Street, adjacent to the new development. The organization had hoped to begin construction on the new homeownership opportunities then, but the effects of the Great Recession stalled city funding and forced the hoped-for project to languish until now.

The new homes are the first part of plans to build and sell over the next two years 38 homes that will be affordable to middle income Roxbury families. “We are excited to finally move forward with the largest new homeownership development in Roxbury in generations,” said Price. These homes will enable moderate-income Roxbury families to make an investment in their neighborhood and avoid displacement due to gentrification.”

All 16 homes will have three bedrooms and have sales prices between $235,000 and $300,000. Families of four with incomes between $59,616 and $98,500 will qualify to be part of a lottery to purchase the homes.

The homes were originally planned as part of a master site development of the former Kasanof Bakery factory site on Blue Hill Avenue. A community committee worked for several years on a plan to build both rental and homeownership housing, with a design that fit into the fabric of the neighborhood. Members of the planning committee included representatives of Project Right, Quincy Geneva Housing Corporation, the Neighborhood Development Corporation of Grove Hall and individual neighbors.

One of Boston’s oldest and most successful community development organizations, Nuestra CDC has developed nearly 700 affordable rental homes and 200 affordable homeownership opportunities. With roots in Roxbury’s Latino community, Nuestra CDC has helped to lead the ongoing revitalization of Roxbury’s Dudley Square.