Boston, MA In Massachusetts, a new program to create much needed workforce housing has been initiated by the quasi-public agency MassHousing. The first development funded under this initiative, Gateway North, is being designed by The Architectural Team, Inc. (TAT), a nationally recognized expert in the design of award-winning multifamily housing, with 45 years of proficiency delivering innovative, sustainable, and thoughtful design solutions to meet a wide range of affordability levels.

MassHousing’s $100 million Workforce Housing Initiative, announced in May 2016 by the state’s governor Charlie Baker, is expected to create more housing opportunities for middle-income residents. The program targets individuals and families with incomes between 61% and 120% of area median income (AMI), and it provides subsidies to create 1,000 new units of workforce housing statewide.

The state’s first-ever multifamily project funded by the Workforce Housing Initiative is the 71-unit Gateway North on Washington in Lynn, Mass., designed by TAT in partnership with real estate developer Thomas Bauer, managing principal of Hub Holdings LLC, and the staff at Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND). The project team’s aim is to provide high-quality housing within close proximity to transportation for low- and middle-income households.

“We are excited to collaborate on this important first for the Workforce Housing Initiative,” said Michael Liu, AIA, NCARB, vice president and principal of TAT. “We’re going to see the issue of workforce housing take an ever-greater presence in the public discourse, and this first project sets a notable and exciting precedent for other programs around the country.”

TAT’s Liu said, “Having developed more than 125,000 units of housing, our firm acutely understands the demographic, social, and economic changes that create opportunities for multifamily developers and investors to build and redevelop properties in urban cores.”

Urban redevelopment has been the hallmark of TAT’s practice since 1971, combined with the firm’s facility to work effectively side-by-side with a variety of federal and state agencies to develop subsidized housing, including HUD, MassHousing and the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), as well as Boston Planning and Development Agency and other regional housing finance agencies. The DHCD selected Gateway North to receive tax credits from several competitive developments, plus delivered another $3.55M of special loans.

“As housing costs continue to rise, middle-income residents are being priced out of communities where they want to live, and Gateway North is a prime example of how new housing can accommodate a range of residents’ incomes,” said Tim Sullivan, executive director of MassHousing.