Newton Housing Partnership evaluated programs and updated members on projects ranging from homeless shelters to new housing developments.
Director Gamuchirai Madzima detailed the growth of Newton Thrive, the program providing mentorship and a monthly income of $250 to low-income Newton residents of Newton negatively impacted by the pandemic.
“It is one of the largest providers of family homeless shelters in Massachusetts,” Madzima said.
In the time since the mentoring program began in February 2023, it has grown to its full capacity of 50 members, all of whom earn 50 percent or less of the area’s median income, Madzima said.
Through this program, the number of participants who followed a budget rose 20 percent, the participants who received adequate child care rose 20 percent, and the participants who paid their rent on time rose 10 percent, according to Madzima.
Madzima read one participant’s response in an anonymous survey about their experience in the program.
“It has allowed us to breathe a little deeper, feel a slight cushion to be able to dream and not feel these dreams are impossible,” an anonymous participant said.
Going forward, the program will focus on ongoing participant engagement and retention, offering monthly economic mobility workshops and group training, according to Madzima.
Madzima said Newton Thrive recently became certified to run a digital skills training course in partnership with Tech Goes Home.
“The team and myself recently became certified to run a digital skills training course in participation with Tech Goes Home, which we are going to be offering participants in the program where they get to walk away with a laptop and 12 months of internet service, which is incredible,” Madzima said.
Then, the partnership moved on to a presentation from RKG Associates, an economic, planning, and real estate consultancy group, led by Kyle Talente.
“[RKG] was involved back in 2019 and is familiar with Newton,” Talente said. “They are also very familiar with greater Boston, having looked at many community IZ ordinances.”
According to Talente, RKG created a program that assesses Inclusionary Zoning housing developments based on factors like size, amount of affordable units, land cost, and material cost to more accurately anticipate rates of return.
Talente said doing so was valuable because developers and investors look for certain percentages within the marketplace to see the project as a viable investment.
“While those numbers don’t really mean anything to you, per se, it means a lot from when we’re doing the analysis to understand whether a project would be competitive in the marketplace,” Talente said.
This model will thus allow them to analyze in advance substantial modifications to various zoning inputs and to understand how it impacts return expectations.
