Boston Community Capital – Stabilizing Urban Neighborhoods (SUN) Initiative

Although not an SGP grantee, many partners are providing below-market loans to the SUN Initiative through Boston Community Capital, a community development financial institution (CDFI) that has invested $430 million in low-income communities since 1984. The SUN Initiative seeks to help employed homeowners in low income neighborhoods that were hard hit by predatory sub-prime lending to avoid eviction and secure fixed rate 30-year mortgages they can afford to pay. When these families are able to stay in their homes, not only do the individuals involved remain stable and cut their housing costs at least in half, but the broader neighborhood avoids the onset of urban mining, declining property values, and rising crime that are statistically associated with even one additional vacant property in a neighborhood.

Collectively, SGP families are lending more than $12 milion to the SUN Initiative, which seeks to finance mortgages for 2,200 families who would otherwise be evicted from their homes in low income neighborhoods in Boston and Revere by May of 2015.

Boston Community Capital Website