SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, … East Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation recently granted donated $7,500 to the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC). The funds will be used to support the SCC’s affordable housing initiatives. The donation came from a commemorative gift of “affordable housing funds” presented in 2004 by East Cambridge Savings Bank’s Board to the Charitable Foundation in recognition of the Bank’s 150th Anniversary.

“Affordable housing is very important to East Cambridge Savings Bank and organizations such as the Somerville Community Corporation are a key component in developing and preserving affordable housing units,” said Arthur C. Spears, president and chief executive officer of East Cambridge Savings Bank. “We are pleased to present this grant to support their efforts in our community.”

The Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) creates and preserves quality housing opportunities for people who can’t otherwise afford to rent or own a home in Somerville.
They have a 25-year history of producing quality, affordable housing units. SCC is currently involved in the single largest development project in its history: the redevelopment of the former St. Polycarp’s parish property. It anticipates constructing 25 new units of rental housing in a mixed use building, as well as building up to 60 new
mixed income condominiums on the site. They have signed a purchase and sales agreement to sell the former rectory building to Just A Start where they will continue and expand Just A Start House, a transitional housing and service program for young mothers, that has rented the former convent for the past 18 years. Additionally, SCC has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell St. Polycarp’s Church building to the Haitian Nazarene Church. SCC will maintain the ground lease on the entire property.

Executive Director for the Somerville Community Corporation, Daniel LeBlanc, states, “The grant from East Cambridge Savings is helping us in the critical early stages of what will be our largest affordable housing project to date, 85 new rental and ownership units at the former St. Polycarp’s parish.”

The Somerville Community Corporation is able to leverage additional resources to support the development and expansion of its Affordable Housing Initiative. For each dollar invested in private funds granted to SCC, they are able to leverage twenty or more dollars in public and private investments in their affordable housing development projects.