TBF Housing Resource Library  Special Reports Chapter 40R School Cost Analysis and Proposed Smart Growth School Cost Insurance Supplement.  Click the cover to download a pdf copy of this report containing recommendations from the Commonwealth Housing Task Force. "Building Our Heritage: A Housing Strategy for Smart Growth and Economic Development," Nov. 2003.  Click the cover to learn more about the report or download a copy. Report Cards The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2002 The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2003 The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2004 The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2005 - 2006 The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2006 - 2007 The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2008 Slide Presentations The 2002 Housing Report Card The 2003 Housing Report Card The 2004 Housing Report Card The 2005 - 2006 Housing Report Card The 2006 - 2007 Housing Report Card The 2008 Housing Report Card

Housing Links

The Boston Indicators website is the report of the Boston Foundation's   Boston Indicators Project, a civic initiative coordinated by the Boston Foundation in partnership with the City of Boston/Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.  Its goal is to engage the general public as well as civic and community-based institutions, the media, business and government in better understanding Boston’s key challenges and opportunities through shared access to high quality objective data.

The website provides high quality data and information about Boston and the region in 10 categories: Civic Health; Cultural Life and the Arts; the Economy; Education; the Environment; Housing; Public Health; Public Safety; Technology; and Transportation. Data are drawn from the wealth of research and information generated by Boston's many excellent public agencies, civic institutions, academic think tanks and community-based organizations. 

The Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association  (CHAPA) is a statewide organization that represents the interests of all players in the housing field, including nonprofit and for profit developers, homeowners, tenants, bankers, real estate brokers, property managers, and government officials.  The organization is a sponsor of many research projects concerned with housing, and assisted in the funding and development of this report.

The Center for Urban and Regional Policy (CURP) was launched in 1999 at Northeastern University as a “think and do tank” – a center where faculty, staff, and students from the university pool their expertise, resources, and commitment to address a wide range of issues facing cities, towns, and suburbs with particular emphasis on the Greater Boston region.  CURP’s web site is a leading source of information for community leaders, public officials, urban researchers, and students.

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON is a series of forums, educational events and research providing information and insight into Boston issues.  This website of the Boston Foundation includes a collection of reports and studies about life in Greater Boston.

Boston Redevelopment Authority
The City of Boston’s planning and economic development agency. Website provides pdf links to BRA research and publications and information on events, programs, and initiatives.

City of Boston
Official website of the City of Boston. See Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development for a list of housing programs and other information.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation
LISC helps resident-led, community-based development organizations transform distressed communities and neighborhoods into healthy ones-- good places to live, do business, work and raise families. By providing capital, technical expertise, training and information, LISC supports the development of local leadership and the creation of affordable housing, commercial, industrial and community facilities, businesses and jobs. We help neighbors build communities.

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston
The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston is a new enterprise of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, working with universities, public agencies, and other organizations in the region to improve the governance of Greater Boston. Website includes pdf research, reports, and ordering information, and event and program information.

Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
A Massachusetts think tank that promotes deep research on public policy issues. Website provides pdf reports and studies and ordering information, links, and program and event information.

Metropolitan Area Planning Council
The MAPC is the regional planning agency representing 101 cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts, including Boston. Their Online Metro Data Center offers a broad range of demographic and economic information on this region. Website also provides information on the MAPC’s programs and initiatives.

MassINC — Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth
MassINC is a nonpartisan think tank and advocacy group to promote the growth and vitality of the state’s middle class. Website provides html links to articles from their quarterly Commonwealth magazine, pdf versions of their research publications (free registration required), and information on initiatives, forums and events.

Boston Housing Authority
The largest landlord in Boston and the largest public housing authority in New England. Website provides press releases, their newsletter, a database of their public housing holdings, and information on programs and events.

Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development
The DHCD is a state level agency concerned with local issues and community development.  DHCD acts as the leading advocate for local governments and community agencies. In this role: DHCD makes state and federal funds and technical assistance available to strengthen communities and help them plan new developments, encourage economic development, revitalize older areas, improve local government management, build and manage public housing, stimulate affordable housing through the private sector and respond to the needs of low-income people. The Office administers the state's public housing programs, coordinates its anti-poverty efforts, allocates federal community development programs and provides a variety of services to local government officials.

Office for Commonwealth Development
OCD's mission is to care for the built and natural environment by promoting sustainable development through the integration of energy, environmental, housing, and transportation investments policies, programs, and regulations.

Massachusetts Association of CDCs
The Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) is the policy and capacity-building arm of the community development movement in Massachusetts. It supports and advances the affordable housing, economic development and community-building strategies of its members. It works to build the power of low and moderate income people to achieve greater economic, social and racial justice.

Home Funders
Home Funders is a group of private and public organizations unified for one cause–to increase the supply of very affordable housing for extremely low-income families in Massachusetts.  It has developed an innovative solution, potentially a national model, to solve this growing problem. It is pooling private dollars to make low-interest loans and grants to build very affordable housing using experienced housing finance intermediaries.

Boston Community Capital
Boston Community Capital is a community development financial intermediary whose mission is to create and preserve healthy communities where low-income people live and work.

Mass Affordable Housing Alliance
The Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) is a statewide nonprofit group that works to encourage local and state government and businesses to invest more money in affordable housing.  Since 1985, MAHA's organizing of tenants and homeowners to voice concerns and break down barriers to affordable homeownership has resulted in 2.8 billion in investments.  MAHA's research on important housing issues and its award-winning homebuyer and homeowner classes for consumers in the Boston area, make the most of the programs MAHA has helped put in place.  

Boston Housing Authority
The Boston Housing Authority is the largest landlord in Boston and the largest public housing authority in New England. As such, the BHA houses approximately 10 percent of the city's residents through its programs.  In addition to providing conventional public housing, the Boston Housing Authority also provides affordable housing through the administration of several rental assistance programs. These programs include the federal Section 8 Voucher Program, as well as the state funded Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program that is overseen by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Boston Tenants Coalition
Masstenants.net, the website of the Massachusetts Tenants Network, was initiated during late 2001 by the Boston Tenant Coalition, in partnership with other area groups such as City Life/Vida Urbana, Massachusetts Law Reform, the Housing Opportunities Program and concerned individuals.

MassHousing
MassHousing is an independent agency dedicated to creating and preserving affordable housing opportunities across Massachusetts. It lends money at rates below the conventional market to support rental and home ownership opportunities for low-and moderate-income residents of the Commonwealth. MassHousing relies on private non-profit and for-profit developers to construct and operate the rental housing that it finances, and on an extensive network of approved lenders to deliver its home mortgage programs to first-time home buyers.

MassDevelopment
MassDevelopment provides the financial tools and real estate expertise needed to stimulate economic growth across the state of Massachusetts. It works with businesses and local officials to address blighted areas, help create jobs, and address overarching issues that impact economic development, such as housing affordability.

CEDAC
The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' technical assistance provider for non-profit, community-based development organizations. Working in partnership with the Romney Administration, CEDAC helps residents of Massachusetts create housing, spur development, and restore the quality of life in their communities.

Mass Housing Partnership
The Massachusetts Housing Partnership is a self-supporting state agency that promotes more stable and diverse neighborhoods in cities and towns across Massachusetts through the development and preservation of affordable housing.

Knowledgeplex — powered by the Fannie Mae Foundation
News and information resource for the affordable housing and community development field.

US Department of Housing and Urban Development
HUD is the Federal agency responsible for addressing America's housing needs. Links to state HUD agencies, pdf and ordering information of related publications, Hud listservs, and information on events, programs, and initiatives.