CHAPA Announces Recipients of Welcome Home Technical Assistance Grants - April 2, 2013

CHAPA is pleased to announce the recipients of its Welcome Home Massachusetts Technical Assistance Grants.  Selected through a competitive process, these grant recipients demonstrate a wide range of activities to further promote the need for, and benefits of, affordable housing.  Small grants have been awarded to:

• The Town of Barnstable, through its Growth Management Department, for the production of  a documentary video describing the positive impacts of affordable housing on the community.   The viewpoint of the video will address common “stereotypical” reactions to affordable housing.  The video will be produced in collaboration with the local high school and housing groups and will be broadly distributed throughout the community.

• The Town of Brookfield, through Friends of the Brookfield Town Hall, for outreach to promote the community housing feature of the Community Preservation Act which is on the ballot in April 2013.  Efforts will inform the community about benefits of affordable housing and ways that the community can maintain control of affordable housing development, such as forming a housing committee or municipal trust, and the use of Community Preservation funds to support affordable housing efforts.

• The Town of Middleborough, through its Office of Economic and Community Development, for the creation of the “Middleborough at Home” Committee to educate the community on the benefits of affordable housing.  Among the issues to be highlighted are the benefits of Chapter 40R, the Compact Neighborhood Initiative and inclusionary zoning.

• The North Shore Community Development Coalition for the launch of a local campaign entitled “Everyone’s Salem.” Salem recently passed the Community Preservation Act and the coalition that came together to pass the CPA remains active and enthusiastically supports Everyone’s Salem.  The campaign will include documentary films, community forums, a Fair Housing training/workshop and neighborhood walking tours.

CHAPA launched Welcome Home Massachusetts in 2010 to affirm grassroots support for access to affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth.  In the first phase of the Initiative, CHAPA, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP), debuted the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Toolbox, an online guide designed to help those, who through their jobs and/or volunteer work, endeavor to increase access to affordable housing in their communities.  To visit the Affordable Housing Toolbox, click here: www.housingpolicy.org/toolbox/index_MA.html.

Awards of the Technical Assistance Grants represent the second phase of CHAPA’s Welcome Home Massachusetts Initiative.  CHAPA extends its congratulations to the grant recipients and its thanks to all who prepared and submitted grant requests.