From the Community

Community Servings Relaunches ‘Teaching Kitchen’

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Community Servings, a nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals and families in Massachusetts experiencing critical and chronic illnesses, recently announced the launch of its redesigned Teaching Kitchen program, a free 12-week hands-on food service job-training program for individuals facing barriers to full-time employment. Beginning in July, classes will resume inside the Learning Kitchen at Community Servings’ “Food Campus” in Jamaica Plain. In a first for the program, many students will be eligible to receive an earned training wage thanks in part to generous support from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Community-based Health Initiative funds, which were recently awarded to the agency as part of a three-year, $500,000 Focused Investment Grant aimed at addressing job and financial security in the community. As they learn food preparation and cooking skills, Teaching Kitchen trainees also help the agency prepare more than 3,000 medically tailored meals that are delivered daily to clients. “Restarting an enhanced Teaching Kitchen program has been a priority for us since March 2020, and the grant support from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center couldn’t have come at a better time,” said David B. Waters, CEO of Community Servings.

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From the Community

Lottery Applications Being Accepted for New Amory Street Income-Restricted Apartments

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Lottery applications are now being accepted for 44 new income-restricted apartments at 25 Amory Street. This is a transit-orientated Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) project that is part of a multi-phase plan to transform land left vacant five decades ago when homes and businesses were bulldozed for a proposed highway. Twenty-nine of the 44 units are 2- and 3-bedroom apartments and are for families. Five of the units are being set aside for homeless individuals, and will be filled by a direct referral by HomeStart, according to 25amory.com. Five of the units are mobility accessible, and one unit is for sensory hearing.

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Development

Turtle Swamp Brewing, Landlord Sue to Stop Low-Income Senior Housing Development

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Turtle Swamp Brewing and its landlord have filed separate lawsuits to prevent a project intended to provide housing to low-income and extremely low-income seniors, as well as a new spot for a longtime neighborhood Latino-owned restaurant. "In short, this development is too big, too close to its neighbors, and does not provide parking or loading areas sufficient to serve the Project," says Turtle Swamp Brewing's lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court. The project at 3371 Washington St. is a joint venture between New Atlantic Development LLC and nonprofit Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), and has already been approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency Board. The project will be five stories of supported affordable senior housing development, which would include 38 units of much-needed housing for low-income and extremely low-income seniors, and an 800-square-foot restaurant space for El Embajador Restaurant, a tenant of the current site.

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Development

8 Condos Available: New Housing Lottery Applications Due by April 23

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The city announced that eight condominiums are going to be sold to all first-time homebuyers through a lottery system. There are several things to keep in mind for applicants:

Homes are sold by lottery
Only qualified applicants will be entered
The property is deed-restricted; owner-occupancy requirements apply
Income and asset limitations apply
You must be a first-time homebuyer
Homebuyers will need to complete an approved homebuyer education course prior to closing
Boston residency preference
Preference for households with a mobility impairment for accessible unit
Preference for households who meet or exceed the number of bedrooms

The condos were built by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC). Below is more information about the units. Income limits for qualified buyers are based on 80% and 100% Area Median Income Limits as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Six condos for households at or below 80% AMI

One 2-bedroom, 1 bathroom units at $221,900
Five 4-bedroom, 2 bathroom units at $288,700

Two condos for households at or below 100% AMI

One 2-bedroom, 1 bathroom unit at $288,700
One 4-bedroom, 2 bathroom unit at $366,900

The 80% AMI 2-bedroom unit is built-out for persons with mobility impairments.

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Real Estate
Inside Blessed Sacrament Church on Saturday, March 29, 2014.

Blessed Sacrament Church Being Sold By Hyde Square Task Force

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The Hyde Square Task Force will be selling the Blessed Sacrament Church property after two years of being unable to find a partner to redevelop it into a community center. The Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) purchased the property in 2014, and has been carrying $500,000 in debt, and expenses for the building cost more than $100,000 annually, according to a press release. In 2014, HSTF provided a tour of some of the closed-to-the-public areas of the church. "Dedicating our resources, solely, to meet the needs of our youth is the only way we can fulfill our core mission and that is why the HSTF Board of Directors voted to sell the former Blessed Sacrament Church,” said HSTF Executive Director Celina Miranda. The original plan was for a performing arts center with space for community events, but a 2019 request for proposal seeking investors failed to generate interest.

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From the Community

Holzer Park Project on Amory Street Moving Forward with 62 Restricted-Income Rental Units

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The Holzer Park project on Amory Street is moving forward after the state committed to funding the building that will provide 62 new units of transit-oriented rental housing. Mayor Martin Walsh and the Department of Neighborhood Development made the announcement on July 23, as the project at 125 Amory Street has already received funding from the city. "I am excited that this project, along with several others, received the final amount of funding needed to begin the work to build more homes in our neighborhoods," said Mayor Walsh via press release. "This project adds 62 subsidized housing units that will offer more opportunities for low and middle income families to live and work in Boston and further contributes to the goals laid out in our Housing Boston 2030 plan." All of the 62 units will be income-restricted across different income levels.

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Opinion

JPNDC Vision for a More Equitable City, Includes Affordable Housing, Prosperity Services and More

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Jamaica Plain, where you’re lucky to get a two-bedroom apartment for under $2,500, was once a neighborhood where homes were burned for insurance money. It was a neighborhood our state was ready to sacrifice for a highway. So when JPNDC (Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation) was founded in 1977, our priorities were bringing back jobs, turning burned-out lots into homes, and making the neighborhood livable again. Today, we face record wealth and income gaps, dramatically reduced economic mobility, and unaffordable housing. As across the country, lower-income people are on a treadmill, getting by at best rather than building security for their children.

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From the Community

JPNDC Call to Artists for Weeklong Pop-Up Space on Centre Street

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The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) has issued a call to artists of color for a temporary weeklong pop-up on Centre Street. The deadline to submit is Feb. 19th. The rising costs of housing and commercial space in Boston have led to high levels of displacement among communities of color. In Jamaica Plain, gentrification has affected thousands of people without access to the capital they need to stay in the neighborhood they call home.

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Development

Ground Broken for 47 Affordable Apartments at 61 Heath Street

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Two local development corporations held a groundbreaking on May 31st to celebrate the beginning of construction for an apartment building of 47 affordable units. The 56,290 square foot, 4-story, apartment building at 61 Heath St., is a joint venture by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) and the Back of the Hill Community Development Corporation (BOTHCDC). “This is the fourth joint project that BOTHCDC and JPNDC have undertaken and we are excited to be bringing new life to part of the neighborhood that has lain fallow for over 40 years,” said JPNDC Executive Director Richard Thal via press release. The apartments are being built on vacant land on the Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill border near Jackson Square, which is adjacent to the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments. Through the years the site was occupied by tenement housing, residences and light commercial and industrial uses, including a bakery and a tin shop, said the JPNDC from research using Sanborn Maps.

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Development

Should 30+ Affordable Senior Rental Units Be Built On This Municipal Lot?

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What if housing were combined with public assets like libraries, municipal buildings and lots, fire stations and other city-owned properties? That was a question the city asked of communities and developers while seeking ideas in January. More than 25 very early stage concepts were submitted with one developer selecting a site in Jamaica Plain. The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) submitted two different concepts for the municipal lot at 490-498 Centre St. across from the Curley K-8 School.

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