Low-Cost Financing From MassDevelopment Helps Harborlight Make Homes for Working Families, Elders, and Disabled

September 29, 2009

Contacts:
Janet Hookailo, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2018
Andrew DeFranza, Harborlight, 978-922-1305

Using $2 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by MassDevelopment, Beverly-based Harborlight Community Partners, Inc. (HCP) will buy nine properties located in neighborhoods in Beverly, Hamilton, and Peabody to provide homes for working families, elders, and people with disabilities. Beverly National Bank purchased the bonds.

“Keeping the cost of borrowing low is key to keeping the cost of housing down,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Robert L. Culver. “We are pleased to support Harborlight Community Partners and the important work it does to provide quality homes for the elderly and disabled.”

Formed last year when Harborlight House Properties, Harborlight Care Services and FBC Property Management Corporation combined, HCP owns and operates affordable housing facilities serving working families, the elderly, and disabled. In-home support services for elders are provided through a contract with Associated Home Care, Inc. and the partnership of SeniorCare, North Shore Elder Services, and Elder Service Plan of the North Shore. The organization has been further bolstered as a part of this transaction by the merger of Harborlight Community Partners, We Care About Homes, and Home at Last; and pending this month, the North Shore Housing Trust.

“When we merged and formed HCP last year, our intention was to strengthen our capacity to manage more housing units,” said HCP Executive Director Andrew DeFranza. “This funding has made it possible for us to acquire existing units and build two new ones.” In addition to buying the nine properties that now house 57 people, HCP will also buy two ranch homes to function as housing for eight, and construct two new single-occupancy units at the Acord Food Pantry site in Hamilton.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions, and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2008, MassDevelopment financed or managed 265 projects statewide representing an investment of more than $3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of 4,001 housing units and more than 10,384 jobs: 5,424 permanent and 4,960 construction-related.