WHEN AFFORDABLE HOUSING CLICKS WITH TECHNOLOGY – By Laura Calugar
Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s Susan Connelly, MPZ Development’s Mathieu Zahler and coUrbanize’s Karin Brandt discuss the ways online outreach tools can spur civic engagement and address community issues.
Affordable housing development is on everyone’s lips nowadays. Misconceptions make it hard for many developers across the country to get their projects approved by the members of the communities they want to build in. Sometimes, affordable housing projects are delayed, or even abandoned, because their developers can’t clearly communicate their intentions among opponents.
Technology stepped in to provide creative solutions. Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) has recently renewed its collaboration with a technology platform to grant developers outreach tools that build community support and speed up the development process. Along with MPZ Development, they are currently working on transforming an unused school site in Bridgewater, Mass., into a 57-unit affordable housing property. The project calls for the conversion of the existing McElwain School into 16 mixed-income apartments, the construction of a new, rear building that is set to include 38 units and the overhaul of a three-family home and barn at 242 Main St., an adjacent site.
Read full article here.