Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Cities and towns may apply for a grant to fund strategic demolition projects that reduce residential property blight, enhance public safety, and improve neighborhoods.
A total of $500,000 in grants is available through the Attorney General’s Office’s Abandoned Housing Initiative.
Municipalities that apply for funding must demonstrate an immediate community need for demolition and an absence of any other viable remediation measures for the property. Those applying must also show plans for post-demolition site redevelopment.
The Attorney General’s Office will distribute $125,000 to four regions administered by the Chelsea Restoration Corporation, Fall River Community Development Agency, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, and Worcester Community Housing Resources, in partnership with the Attorney General’s Office.
Each of these four grantees will accept requests for demolition funding and will forward their top choices for funding awards to the Attorney General’s Office for final approval.
“Communities across the state are dealing with severely blighted properties in their neighborhoods, but often lack the funds to complete the demolitions that are necessary when buildings become a real safety concern,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “These grants will allow municipalities to target these dangerous properties in order to boost future residential and economic development.”
The grant program uses funds recovered through the nationwide state-federal settlement over unlawful foreclosures.
More information, including the cities and towns included in each region, the contact for the regional grantees, and each grantees terms and conditions, is available on the Attorney General Office’s Abandoned Housing Initiative website.
The Abandoned Housing Initiative employs the State Sanitary Code to seek out owners of distressed or abandoned residential properties and have the owners bring those homes back into code compliance.
If an owner refuses, then Attorney General’s Office can petition the court to appoint a receiver to complete the needed repairs, with a lien placed on the home for the value of the work. The receiver is then compensated when the property is sold.
The initiative currently works with 108 cities and towns, and there are more than 380 active abandoned properties in the program, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Healey announced the expansion of the program earlier this year.
For more information on the Abandoned Housing Initiative, contact Program Manager Nathan Gardner at (617) 963-2150 or nathan.gardner@state.ma.us.