On Monday night, Newton’s Planning and Development Board passed the city’s Annual Action Plan, a federally mandated report describing how the city will spend its more than $3.5 million in federal housing grants in the coming year.
Newton receives three grants: the Community Development Block Grant, used for community infrastructure or public services; the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, used for bolstering affordable housing; and the Emergency Solutions Grant, which helps people regain housing after homelessness.
The greatest of these grants is the $1.86 million Community Development Block Grant. Sixty percent, or $1.1 million, of this grant will go to creating and supporting affordable housing infrastructure.
This will contribute to projects like redeveloping the West Newton Armory site on Washington Street entirely into affordable housing, which is set to open next year.
“We are hopefully just a week or two away from the financial closing on this project, after which they’re hoping to start almost immediately under construction and have the project open in FY27,” said Laura Kritzer, Newton’s director of housing and community development.
Newton will also spend a portion of this grant money on three $10,000 direct subsidies to individual low-income homebuyers in Newton.
Newton will allocate 15 percent of the grant to supporting human services, including programs at 15 local organizations, such as Newton Food Pantry, the John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club of Newton, and Riverside Community Care.
According to Nika Sandal, a Newton community development planner, the city’s priorities in allocating this funding were to “directly provide stability across the lifespan” for Newton’s low-to-moderate income population through a track program that supports individuals successively from youth to adulthood to old age.
The second grant is for the Home Investment Partnership Program, for which Newton acts as an intermediary, distributing predetermined federal grants both to the city and the 12 other member communities in the MetroWest area through a body called the MetroWestHOME Consortium.
“Newton is fortunate in many ways that we’re the lead [of the] Consortium for those funds, which means we’re the convener of the consortium communities, and we do a lot of work in that respect,” said Barney Heath, director of planning and development.
In total, the Consortium will receive $1,526,678, which will be spent on rental assistance for housing, renovating current affordable units, and building new units across the MetroWest area. This will include funding developments like the Eliot Street project in Natick, which will transform a former public school into 32 affordable housing units.
“The money is put to very good use in all of the communities, as you can see,” Heath said.
Of the third federal grant, the Emergency Solutions Grant, 46.6 percent will be spent supporting local homeless shelters through building maintenance and renovations.
An additional 23.3 percent of the grant will go to rent assistance and moving costs for homeless or housing-insecure individuals and families, while 22.6 percent will be spent moving families into permanent housing.
Community Day Center of Waltham and Brookline Community Mental Health Center will be the two recipients of this funding.
Following the Annual Action Plan’s approval in Planning and Development on Monday, the city’s Zoning and Planning Committee and Mayor Ruthanne Fuller will have to approve the document before it’s submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
When asked what the city could do to support further affordable housing efforts, Kritzer commended the 2023 village center zoning legislation that upzoned many parts of Newton.
“I think the more you can support and help projects move forward that provide more affordable housing, hopefully, in the end, we end up with more, and kind of drive down the cost some,” Kritzer said.
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