Mayor Walsh and the Mission Hill Community celebrate the grand opening of the Maria Sanchez House
Mayor Martin J. Walsh today joined Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services, the Sánchez family, local elected officials and Mission Hill residents to celebrate the opening of the Maria Sánchez House, a $15.6 million transit-oriented affordable senior rental housing development. Named after the mother of Representative Jeffrey Sánchez, the 40-unit newly-constructed senior rental housing is located on a long-vacant site located adjacent to the Roxbury Crossing MBTA Station, in the heart of the Mission Hill commercial district.
"It is critically important to maintain and add to our affordable housing market in the city, especially for our seniors who have helped make Boston the great city that it is today," said Mayor Walsh. "I want to congratulate Mission Hill Housing Services on reaching this milestone today. I'm proud that together with our partners we are able to create affordable homes for our seniors, offering residents convenient access to the services they need in a place that they are proud to call home."
All of the units were rented to individuals who are 62 years old or older and are earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), with most of the residents earning 30 percent of AMI or below. The building's 40 one-bedroom apartments, have two elevators for accessibility, central air conditioning, two on-site laundry facilities, a large community space for programming for residents on the ground floor, a rear courtyard, and a deck with views of the City. Construction of the Maria Sánchez House generated approximately 45 construction jobs.
"This is the result of many years of hard work and many partners," said Representative Jeffrey Sánchez. "Naming this for my mother honors her work and commitment to the Mission Hill community she loves with all her heart, but also represents all those community members who dedicated years to creating a vision for Roxbury Crossing that is now being realized. This is only the first step and I expect Mission Hill NHS to soon move across Gurney Street to Parcel 25 as the next step."
In accordance with the City of Boston's Green Affordable Housing Program, the Goody Clancy design for the four-story block and plank building utilizes green building strategies and that met LEED "Gold" standards. The project also meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star standards.
The City of Boston contributed more than $2.8 million to the development of the Maria Sánchez House, including Housing Creation Linkage funding from neighborhood institution Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. The project received HUD support of $6.2 million in Section 202 capital funding and $400,000 in grant funding. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts also contributed more than $2.8 million to the development of this project. Land was donated for the project by Wentworth Institute of Technology and the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development.
