Peter Walsh, senior vice president at member Bank Rhode Island (left) with Kenneth A. Willis, vice president and director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Housing and Community Investment Department, at a ribbon-cutting for the AHP-funded Dreyfus Hotel initiative in downtown Providence. The initiative provides affordable live-work space for artists, work studios, gallery space, and a ground-floor restaurant.
community organizing activities.

By Lily Bryant

Affordable Housing Program Funds 629 Units in First Round of 2007 In the first funding round of the 2007 Affordable Housing Program (AHP), the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (the Bank) awarded more than $18 million in grants, loans, and rate subsidies to fund 23 initiatives. These projects will result in 629 units of affordable housing across New England.

Twenty of the 23 approved developments will create or preserve 578 rental units, while the remaining developments will create 51 homeownership units. The average subsidy per approved application was $423,152.

This round included an initiative to build 34 units of workforce housing in Stowe, Vermont. Sixteen units will be reserved for very low-income households, 18 will be affordable for households earning between 51 and 60 percent of the area median income, and six units will be rented at market rate. All residents will benefit from daycare, microbusiness-lending, family self-sufficiency, and job-matching services.

In Manchester, New Hampshire, an oversized house will be acquired and rehabilitated to create five units of transitional, supportive housing for single, formerly homeless mothers recovering from substance abuse.

The application period for the second AHP round of 2007 closed on September 28, 2007. T