A generous $43,440 grant from the Charlesbank Homes Foundation will bring relief to low-income families while advancing SBNDC’s energy efficiency goals . The award will make it possible for SBNDC to replace 84 windows in two affordable rental buildings, in turn lowering the heating and cooling costs for the tenants and making their homes more comfortable year-round.

As rents have steadily climbed in South Boston, the community has become increasingly supportive of affordable housing as a critical tool in fighting displacement. One of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to add affordable homes to the neighborhood is through the conversion of market-rate units. The City of Boston’s Acquisition Opportunity Program helps organizations to purchase properties in order to transition them into permanently affordable homes, and SBNDC leveraged the program to purchase two multi-family buildings on Woodward Street in 2019. Immediate improvements were needed to make the apartments code compliant and more energy efficient, and although there are programs that fund improvements and repairs to affordable housing, these buildings did not yet meet the required percentage of affordable units to qualify.

“Our tenants were already overburdened by heating and cooling costs because the buildings were not weatherized properly in the past,” said SBNDC Executive Director Donna Brown. “The impacts of the pandemic hit low-income families especially hard, and we are grateful to Charlesbank Homes Foundation for helping us make these homes more comfortable and even more affordable for our tenants in the near-term.”

SBNDC has added insulation to the apartments and installed energy-saving devices, like digital thermostats and low-flow faucets and showerheads. The roofs were replaced last fall and solar panels will be installed this year. Replacing windows and converting the heating systems will make the biggest difference to tenants’ utility bills and the buildings’ environmental impact, and those projects are next on the list for SBNDC. The grant from Charlesbank Homes Foundation covers more than half of the cost of the window replacement work, which is scheduled for this summer.

Charlesbank Homes has a history of supporting affordability in South Boston – the foundation also awarded grant funding to build Patriot Homes. The weatherization and energy efficiency work at Woodward Street is part of SBNDC’s larger climate action initiative. A $25,000 grant from the Dedham Savings Community Foundation will also fund a significant portion of the window replacement project; Dedham Savings financed the Woodward Street mortgage.