Andover is just one of three towns selected by CHAPA for their 2022 Municipal Engagement Initiative. Through this initiative the town will receive support to investigate how to improve our affordable housing strategies.

Help us support a new Massachusetts bill to allow local control on placing a small fee of .5% to 2% on higher-end real estate transactions to fund affordable housing. This legislation is intentionally adaptable so that different municipalities can enact the type of transfer fee that works for their community.

Hear directly from Haydee, a new homeowner, who shares how to get prepared to find and purchase an affordable home in Andover.

Two families have moved into the first two Stott Circle homes to be completed. The permanently affordable homes were built through a partnership between Andover Community Trust (ACT) and Essex County Habitat for Humanity.

Listen to Planet’s Money’s podcast Three Reasons for the Housing Shortage and in just 16 minutes hear the three big reasons for the shortage. Then consider what ACT is doing locally to work towards reducing the housing shortage.

As we hope to complete the east duplex before fall, this June marked the end of Greater Lawrence Technical School students working on the ACT home on Lupine Road. The Andover Townsman published an article, GLTS Students Build Duplex, on the students and the work they have done over the past 3 years on the duplex.

Check out the gallery of builders at the Lupine Road east duplex

Read about Andover’s plans for the newly received MHP grant

A new report from the New England Public Policy Center, “Racial and Socioeconomic Test-Score Gaps In New England Metropolitan Areas: State School Aid and Poverty Segregation,” explores factors associated with unequal educational opportunity. One of the conclusions is that increasing affordable housing can help low- and moderate-income families move to areas where school outcomes are better.

Andover is designing a new community choice aggregation program (CCA). In support of this program, Andover Community Trust Statement shared the following statement on renewable energy in Andover.

The temporary Rental and Mortgage Assistance Program was established by the town of Andover to provide income-eligible households with funds to pay overdue or future rent or mortgage costs. Hear about the first round of payments and the uncertainty going forward.

WCVB shared a news story on the Lupine Road development and the merger of the Merrimack Valley Habitat and Essex County Habitat. Watch this feature and the work going on at the site.

Nearly 100 participants joined online to hear from experts on how Andover is embracing affordable housing, the challenges that exist, how the entire community benefits, and how to find affordable housing in Andover

Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, The Black Lives Next Door, detailing the importance of developing skills to persuade powerful institutions to create necessary reform.

The model of the nonprofit Black Women Build is not dissimilar to ACT’s model to rebuild modest homes with local talent and sell them at affordable prices in order to change the trajectory of black women by helping them build home ownership. Amy Scott, of NPR, shares a story on the vitalization of one block in a West Baltimore neighborhood. Fabulous, short and interesting reporting to listen to while you walk or drive or make dinner.

Hear what you can do to participate in the work of affordable housing and meet the Andover Community Trust (ACT) new homeowners, a student builder and board members.

This CNN article looks at the persistent home ownership gap between races in this country and the type of reforms that are needed to close that gap

Our strength comes from our community. When Covid-19 closed schools and we lost our GLTS builders, Andover proved again that it is a strong, interconnected community helping to create alternatives to fulfill the needs at hand.

WBUR shares resources that may help you pay your rent or mortgage during the Covid-19 crisis.