Bringing new life to distressed neighborhoods and tackling the affordable housing crisis, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has rekindled their commitment to community transformation through the newly rebranded Receivership Expense Assistance for Creating Housing (REACH) program. According to their latest announcement, the initiative is set to deploy up to $2 million in funding, earmarked for 1-2 qualified organizations that will take the helm in administering loans to statewide receivers overseeing the rehabilitation of run-down residential properties.
With a substantial increase from its former cap, the REACH program now allows eligible receivers to borrow as much as $250,000 per affordable housing project, fueling the transformation of blighted homes into habitable, and dare we say, hopeful sanctuaries of affordability, "The REACH program is an important tool in addressing our affordable housing crisis, offering critical funding that brings abandoned and blighted properties back into use," Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell remarked, emphasizing the initiative's pivotal role in community rejuvenation and the creation of a safer, more aesthetically pleasing urban canvas for residents.
Since its inception in 2013, the program, then under the moniker Abandoned Housing Initiative Receivership Fund (AHIR), has facilitated over $9 million in loans, culminating in the restoration of 109 blighted properties and the reintegration of 214 housing units into the market. Under the stewardship of the AGO’s Neighborhood Renewal Division (NRD), the REACH initiative seeks to not only resurrect deteriorating properties but also reclaim unpaid property taxes and municipal fees for the communities, with AG Campbell’s administration having recovered roughly $1.14 million in dues.
Applications for the reinvented REACH program are due by April 25, 2025, at 5:00 pm, the AGO has made a point of this deadline, yet providing ample opportunity for potential administrators to prepare and proffer their proposals for contributing to the state’s urban renewal efforts, more details on the application process and the program's expansion can be found on the AGO’s website, serving as a resource for those eager to play a part in Massachusetts's housing landscape transformation.
