MassHousing has closed loans amounting to $11.8 million for the acquisition and repurposing of Sitkowski School located in Webster. The historic school will be transformed into 66 affordable apartments for those 55 years old and above, Boston.com reported. MassHousing is a quasi-public agency mandated to provide financing for affordable housing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Neighborhood of Affordable Housing or NOAH based in East Boston is developing the Sitkowski School Apartments. A brick building found in downtown Webster, Sitkowski School was constructed in the early 1900s and expanded in 1920. Located adjacent to the Webster Town Hall and Webster Public Library, the building was once a high school and middle school but has not been occupied for eight years, the report said.
The Webster Redevelopment Authority has advanced a master plan to revitalize the downtown area and rehabilitating Sitkowski School is one of the components of that plan. In a statement, MassHousing Executive Director Thomas R. Gleason said, "The Sitkowski School has been vacant and unused for nearly 10 years but now it will be transformed into a valuable affordable housing resource for senior citizens and the town of Webster for decades to come. For many, many years this building echoed with the voices of children and young adults and now it will be home to seniors who will be able to continue to live in Webster."
Established in 1966, MassHousing is a self-supporting not-for-profit public agency that does not utilize taxpayers' money to finance its programs, data from CrunchBase showed. It sells bonds instead. It has provided over $13 billion in funding for homebuyers and homeowners as well as for developers and owners of reasonably-priced rental housing. MassHousing has also provided support to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by supplying funds that help offset budgetary reductions to state housing programs in recent years, the data said.
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