Source: Urban Lab Magazine

Date: 10.27.2025

Link: Making Affordable Housing Add Up

This article is about a 92-unit mixed income housing development outside Boston. One of the equity partners in the deal is a quasi-public organization called MassHousing. Normally, MassHousing supports projects through debt financing or direct subsidies, but a recent state housing bond bill created a $50-million fund—called Momentum Equity—to invest alongside private developers. MassHousing invested $5 million in preferred equity for this particular housing project. Providing equity financing opportunities and such obvious public commitment really creates an entrepreneurial approach to development. It de-risks projects for private developers and makes investors more confident. Ideally, there is profit from an ownership stake to be reinvested and create a kind-of “revolving source of capital”. And then obviously, investing these public funds in this way leverages the power behind private capital. These types of public/private funding partnerships are happening here in New York, Maryland, and Atlanta even. I just think this is a smart way to amplify public funds, maximize their benefit, and that level of quasi-public commitment generally strengthens every sector.