Ground broken on 48 starter homes in Mission Hill as 44 apartments open at Bartlett Station. Both used Community Preservation money

Two income-restricted housing projects reached milestones this week, one starting and one finishing. Both received money from the Community Preservation Fund, the property tax surcharge that Boston voters adopted in 2016. The City Council must approve every appropriation from it.

Mission Hill Pathway: 48 homes for first-time buyers

This week the city celebrated the groundbreaking on Mission Hill Pathway, on long-vacant city-owned land. The project will have 48 income-restricted homes for first-time buyers earning 80% to 100% of area median income. It includes about 2,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space on Terrace Street and about 30,000 square feet of open space and urban farming. The building is all-electric and designed to be net zero carbon.

The developer, ODJ Dev LLC, was picked through a Mayor's Office of Housing request for proposals. It is a joint venture of DVM Housing Partners, Oxbow Urban and JGE Development. The Parks and Recreation Department will own the public open space, and The Trustees of Reservations will look after it and run the community gardens. City records list the site as 77 Terrace Street and 778-796 Parker Street. The Mission Hill Gazette reported in 2024 that a planned pedestrian path between the two streets was dropped because of cost and upkeep.

Chief of Housing Sheila Dillon said the project takes land "that was sitting vacant" and turns it into an asset for the neighborhood. The city did not give a cost or a completion date. It listed Community Preservation funds for the homeownership and open space pieces, along with GrowBoston, the state housing office, MassHousing and others.

The site is in District 8, represented by City Councilor Sharon Durkan.

59 Bartlett Station: the last building on an old bus yard

On Oct. 28, Urban Edge and Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation opened 59 Bartlett Station, a building with 44 income-restricted apartments in Roxbury. It is the fifth phase of the redevelopment of a former 8.5-acre MBTA bus yard, planned with neighbors starting in the early 2000s, with construction starting in 2017. The city listed funding from the Mayor's Office of Housing, the Neighborhood Housing Trust, the Community Preservation Fund, state agencies and private lenders, without dollar amounts. It did not give income limits.

Dillon said the project was "years in the making." The site is in District 7, represented by City Councilor Miniard Culpepper.

What our records add

The council approves Community Preservation spending in yearly rounds, and its recent CPA votes have been unanimous:

• April 29: $32.6 million from fiscal 2026 CPA revenue for projects recommended by the Community Preservation Committee, including housing, parks and community gardens, passed 12-0 after a CPA Committee review (docket 0569).
• Sept. 23: The council voted 13-0 to set the fiscal 2027 fund at $47.3 million, to be held for future recommendations and council votes (docket 1771).

A bigger question is still open: how much CPA money should go to housing. The CPA Committee held a hearing Oct. 20 on raising the share set aside for affordable housing, and the order is still pending (docket 1601; our story).

The administration says nearly 40,000 homes, including nearly 12,000 income-restricted ones, have been completed, started or entered the pipeline since Wu took office in 2021. Those are the city's figures.

What's next

The next round of CPA projects will come to the council as appropriation orders once the Community Preservation Committee makes its picks. The city did not say when buyers can apply for the Mission Hill homes. Lotteries are posted on the city's housing opportunities page.