Eastern plus ONE+ add up for Lynn

LYNN — On Monday, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP), along with the Eastern Bank Foundation and other contributors, announced the launch of ONE+ at the Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development building.

The program is “an innovative mortgage program designed to make homeownership more accessible for low and moderate income first-time homebuyers in 29 Massachusetts communities,” according to a MHP press release.

Lynn ended up being one of those communities, with a $4 million contribution coming from the Eastern Bank Foundation that will specifically go towards Lynn, Lawrence, and Lowell. 

“Our neighbors, as we speak, are experiencing displacement … families who are looking to get a start don’t know where to go and businesses are worried every day about retaining their employees,” Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson said.

Nicholson said that his administration is focusing on the goal of inclusive growth and growing in a way that benefits everybody and supports first time homeowners, something ONE+ will help do. 

Governor Maura Healey was also at the event, and spoke on the importance of making Massachusetts more affordable.

“We are number one in the country for education, for healthcare, for innovation. We were just ranked the best place to have a baby, to raise a family, to live if you’re a woman. There are a lot of ways that we value residents here in this state, and we look to protect their rights, protect their freedoms, and afford a quality of life for families around this state,” Healey said. 

She emphasized that affordable housing is a major barrier that the Commonwealth is hoping to fix. 

“This is a problem that has built up over decades but we’ve wasted no time in getting after it,” she said. “We are focused on working together with the state government, local government, the business community, nonprofit community, everybody working together and today we celebrate the establishment of a first time homeowners buyer program with an initial combined investment of $11 million.”

Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll spoke after Healey, and said she was excited to come together with everyone to celebrate a new path to first-time homeownership. 

“I saw the impact of the gateway city housing crisis continue to increase. I’m talking about places like Lynn, Salem, Fitchburg, New Bedford, Fall River and Lowell. Communities that used to be livable … too often they’re not affordable anymore,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll said that many of the people being impacted are ones that the community relies on. They include workers, seniors, and recent graduates.

“The people who are making our cities great are having a really hard time staying in them … The character of many of our cities are at stake if we don’t figure this out,” she said.

She said that the future for the communities and the Commonwealth depends on everyone coming together to solve this challenge and that ONE+ is going to have a major positive impact on communities.

President and CEO of The Boston Foundation Lee Pelton spoke after Driscoll. The Boston Foundation’s Racial Wealth Gap Partnership contributed to the over $11 million in funds that ONE+ is starting with. 

“One of The Boston Foundation’s core strategies is improving lives and strengthening communities in our commitment to closing racial wealth gaps both here in Boston and in the region,” Pelton said.  

The investment into ONE+ will generate more than $160 million in equity for households in a span of 10 years, according to Pelton. 

“At the Boston Foundation, we are committed to closing wealth gaps, but it is not work that any entity can do alone. That is why I convened the Racial Wealth Gap Partnership, which brings together housing, financial, nonprofit, philanthropic, and civic leaders on this vital issue,” he said in the press release.

Executive Chair and Chair of the Board of Directors Bob Rivers was introduced as the next speaker. 

“Our company’s purpose is simple, we do good things to help people prosper. This program is designed to do just that. We bring our strength as the largest community bank in Massachusetts with our roots right here in Lynn and in Salem … We created our foundation 30 years ago and since then we have donated over $17 million to community organizations focused on housing security, housing insecurity, and affordable housing,” Rivers said. 

 he Eastern Bank Foundation has a commitment to helping families find affordable housing and a safe place to call home. 

“The Eastern Bank Foundation has committed $4 million in funding to set this program on its course … We encourage other companies and other foundations, other funders, to participate in this program any way that you can, so there are even more resources available for first time home buyers,” he said. 

Eastern Bank of Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Edward Augustus thanked all those participating in the ONE+ program to help first-time homeowners. 

“Today is one step toward fixing the disparity … Today is a celebration, because we believe in a Commonwealth where everyone has the opportunity to have their own home and achieve the peace of the American Dream,” Augustus said. 

He then introduced Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Clark Ziegler, who spoke about how amazed other states are at the work being done in Massachusetts.

“Every time I talk about what we’ve been doing in Massachusetts, the other folks are just awestruck about what we do here … We all get together at the table, whether it’s state government, local government, banks, community advocates, and now philanthropic foundations. We talk to each other and figure out what we can do, how to improve it, how we can really change the rules of the game to have an impact that we’d like to see,” Ziegler said. 

Perhaps the most impactful speaker at the event was David Jiles, a homeowner who benefited from affordable housing programs such as MassDREAMS, a precursor to ONE+.

“15 years ago I arrived in Boston for graduate school with $76 in my bank account, no savings, and even nine months of overdue car payments,” Jiles said. 

“At that time, I couldn’t imagine a future where I owned a home. Today, I’m proud to stand here as a homeowner living the American Dream, thanks to support of programs like MassDREAMS,” he said. 

Giles admitted that the journey to owning a home was hard, but through guidance he was able to achieve his goal of owning a home. 

“They didn’t just help me buy a home. They saw my humanity,” Jiles said. “They stood by me when my father passed away during the process, giving me space and grace to grieve while staying committed to my community.”