Madison Park Development Corporation

About

Madison Park Development Corporation (Madison Park) is a community development corporation, a type of 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation. Based in Boston, Madison Park was created in 1966 in the wake of ‘urban renewal’ programmes, in which Black and lower-income neighbourhoods were demolished for redevelopment.

Madison Park is women-run and women-led. As a community development corporation, its board members are diverse and representative of the local community. Among other activities, it develops affordable low-income housing for low- and moderate-income families in the Roxbury neighbourhood. This helps serve a huge unmet need in affordable housing in Boston, where roughly 65% of residents are renters and more than half put over 30% of their income towards rent. To date, it has developed some 1,600 affordable housing units.

Type of actor

Community development corporation

Investment type

Public finance – receives US Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funding.

Operates in

United States

Madison Park’s housing projects and affordable units are often sited near public amenities such as playgrounds, schools and transit, meet LEED Silver standards or higher, and are energy efficient. From an environmental justice standpoint, the units have central heating and cooling to address residents’ needs in increasingly extreme climate conditions. Green space, amenities, accessibility and passive design are considered in the siting of projects.

Besides being women-run and -led, Madison Park’s affordable housing also serves residents in gendered ways. While there is no explicit gender lens criteria for selecting applicants, criteria include single-parent households and families leaving domestic violence situations. This leads to better outcomes for women: in practice, women-led households make up the majority of tenants and homeowners.

Approach

Madison Park oversees the process of acquiring, financing, construction and leasing of real estate.

Its portfolio is financed by public federal, state and municipal programmes such as the US low-income housing tax credit scheme. It builds income-restricted housing units whose maximum rent is a percentage of local median income.

Such public financing often comes with conditions. For example, some of Madison Park’s funding is to develop units that are leased to people experiencing homelessness, or who receive state mental health or rehabilitation services.

Funders’ cost considerations can sometimes constrain Madison Park’s climate and gender ambitions: for example, elements such as passive design or adherence to higher LEED standards may cost more. Or, funders may consider in-unit laundry a risk for leaks and more-frequent maintenance, even though laundry in each unit is a key gender consideration that benefits caregivers of young children.

To date, Madison Park has already installed 17 rooftop solar projects across its entire housing portfolio, providing energy to 430 households in Roxbury and cutting roughly 11,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Utility cost savings were transmitted to residents, lowering their vulnerability to energy poverty. Dedicated public funding could help to scale renewable energy installation for such projects.

Impact

“Madison Park’s affordable housing projects have had some positive outcomes for gender and racial equity, though the city’s affordable housing crisis remains.”

Madison Park’s affordable housing projects have had some positive outcomes for gender and racial equity, though the city’s affordable housing crisis remains. For example, the seven income-restricted units in one homeownership project were oversubscribed by a hundredfold; all seven units were ultimately purchased by women-led households or buyers of colour. In another programme for homeownership down payment assistance, all ten recipients to date are women; eight of the ten are African American and two are Hispanic. While there were no explicit racial or gender criteria for applicants, these outcomes resulted from a combination of other criteria, such as income levels and applicants leaving domestic violence situations.

Key takeaways

Madison Park aims to apply its experience and gender and climate ambitions, in partnership with other developers and community organisations, to a large mixed-use development in Roxbury. In addition to some 308 affordable housing units, the development would also serve local community needs, such as with transit, bicycle and pedestrian connections, opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses, and skills training for the life sciences and other growth industries.