MAHA Housing Hub

As the world races to put in place provisions to protect public health in the wake of COVID-19, government leaders are attempting to mitigate the financial hardship from this crisis. Governments and banks in Spain, Italy, France, England and Canada have instituted various forms of mortgage payment suspensions or freezes ranging from one month to six months.

(published in Commonwealth Magazine on March 29, 2019)
By Thomas Callahan and Symone Crawford
On campuses across the nation, a combination of guidance and financial assistance has sprung up to support first-generation college students. Academic institutions - big and small as well as public and private - have recognized the importance of giving first-gen students a leg up.
When it comes to homeownership, first generation buyers are left to compete with better resourced peers, many who can lean on family for advice and the “Bank of Mom and Dad” for money.

$8. Not a typo. In last week's Boston Globe Spotlight Team series on race in Boston, this jumped off the screen. $8 is the median net worth of non-immigrant African-American households in the Boston area compared to $247,500 for white households. Other households of color have a net worth ranging from $0 to a high of $12,000. Differences in homeownership rates are the biggest contributor to these sobering figures.
 

July 28, 2023 – In June 2023, Partnership for Financial Equity and Woodstock Institute released their Mortgage Lending Matters report. The report found that in 2021 the number of mortgages to Black and Latinx households remained at an all time high in Massachusetts but that Boston is losing homebuyers of color.

Dorchester, MA — Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) incoming executive director Symone Crawford issued the following statement today after President Biden and Congressional leaders released the framework for the Build Back Better Act, which includes significant funding for affordable housing, including a first-generation down payment assistance program inspired by MAHA’s STASH matched savings program for first-gen homebuyers.