At Dewitt Community Center in Lower Roxbury, dozens of housing hunters filed into the gym Tuesday night, hoping to secure an affordable unit in a new apartment complex opening nearby this spring. They could add to the 700 applicants that the Madison Park Development Corporation has already received for the 39 units.
"It shows the demand and the need for affordable housing," said Jeanne Pinado, Madison Park's CEO. She suggested that the online application process the nonprofit recently created has contributed to the number of applications.
"I think this isn't unusual," she continued. "It's, frankly, probably easier to sit at your computer and fill an out application."
The two new buildings that make up the complex, which has 76 units total, are financed in part with the support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Its Choice Neighborhood's program facilitates community redevelopment through planning and implementation grants.
Many of the affordable units in the new complex, called the Madison Melnea Cass Apartments, are prioritized as "replacement units" for tenants from the Whittier Street public housing development. Still, more than 100 people showed up to an informational meeting to learn how to apply. Among those looking for the help were Fasil Mulatu and Beyan Nurhusen. Although the two men are hunting for different housing options, both said their multi-year searches have stalled.
"Renting private property in the city is expensive," said Mulatu, 30. The single man currently lives with roommates, but wants a studio or a one-bedroom that won't cost him more than half of his monthly income. His rent ceiling is higher than the common financial rule of thumb that renters spend a maximum of 30 percent of their income on housing.
Nurhusen told WGBH News he was looking for a two- or three-bedroom unit for his family, a wife and two growing children. Both men said they've placed their names on waiting lists for housing in Boston and Cambridge.
Others like Jennifer, a 29-year-old Mattapan resident who only wanted to be identified by her first name, also wanted to secure more space for a growing family without sacrificing the majority of a budget.
"Rent is so high," she said, in between asides to her mother in Spanish, paper application in hand. Jennifer said currently, she and her two sons live in a small apartment with her mother. It would be too expensive to pay rent and support her children alone, so she came to the DeWitt Center looking for another option. Asked what percentage of her income she would spend on housing ideally, she responded, "20 percent."
The lowest rents for affordable units in the Madison Melnea Cass Apartments run from about $1,200 for a one-bedroom to $1,700 for a three-bedroom.
Even though the city has made a commitment to address Boston's housing shortage partly by adding affordable units over the next 10 years, Pinado said community development corporations like Madison Park are able to contribute to increasing their numbers.
"They're producers of housing, they're preservers of housing and they're providers of housing services," she said, adding that both the city and state governments have been very supportive of their community-based housing development.
The deadline to apply for one of the group's scarce, affordable units is Feb. 13.
