Caritas Communities has a contract to purchase this 14-unit lodging house located at 1876 Beacon St. in Brookline for a reported $1.1 million.
At a time when rooming houses are becoming more rare, a Braintree nonprofit group is expanding its portfolio of lodging house units and at the same time preserving properties that have provided temporary housing for thousands of low-income single residents.
Caritas Communities, which owns and manages lodging houses, is planning to purchase properties in Brookline, Quincy and Salem in upcoming months, totaling 98 rooms. The acquisitions will represent a 23 percent increase in Caritas-owned units in the Greater Boston area.
“We are very confident that we will close all of these transactions by the end of the year,” said Mark J. Winkeller, executive director of Caritas Communities.
Rooming houses, where rents are paid on a week-to-week basis, are a housing alternative for very low-income individuals who have jobs but are at risk or have been homeless at some point in their lives. Typical residents tend to be single working men who are in their 40s and hold service-sector jobs that earn them about $14,000 a year.
Currently, Caritas has 18 rooming houses with 425 single-room occupancy units, or SROs. Caritas purchases already existing, licensed lodging houses, typically from small-property owners who no longer want to be in the business.
“This [rooming houses] is a very valuable housing resource for them [single working men and women],” said Naomi Sweitzer, assistant executive director of HomeStart Inc. HomeStart, which provides housing services for homeless people in Greater Boston, has referred residents to Caritas-owned properties in the past. During the last fiscal year, HomeStart sent 16 percent of its clients – or 35 residents – to live in SROs.
Many of the region’s working poor live in shelters because they have no housing alternatives, explained Sweitzer. By moving into an SRO, these individuals can get their “feet on the ground” and save money to move into more permanent housing.
Sweitzer praised Caritas for purchasing, preserving and rehabilitating lodging houses. Caritas does a good job of rehabbing properties by using high-quality building materials and also by hiring on-site property managers who keep the buildings well maintained, she said.
The average rent at a Caritas property is $105 per week, which pays for a fully furnished room and utilities. Bathrooms and kitchens are shared. Caritas does not put a time limit on how long residents can remain in the units.
‘Unmet Need’
The newest Caritas acquisitions come at time when the number of SRO units has dropped in the Bay State. Housing for single people is an “enormous unmet need” in the state, both in terms of supply and the availability of financing for that type of housing, according to Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund. There’s “more money to be made” in providing other types of housing, said Ziegler, but since MHP realizes the value of SROs for low-income working people, it has tried to play a role in “stabilizing and expanding” that type of housing stock.
Caritas has relied on MHP for financing. MHP, one of the state’s leaders in financing SROs, has made over 30 loans for this type of housing – funding nearly 1,400 units in 27 communities throughout the state. In August, MHP, along with MassDevelopment, provided a $5.4 million loan to Caritas through its Massachusetts Tax-exempt Credit for Housing Program. The program provides nonprofit owners of affordable housing with long-term permanent financing through the sale of tax-exempt bonds.
Now, Caritas is trying to grow its network. In Brookline, Caritas has a contract to purchase a 14-unit lodging house located at 1876 Beacon St. from a small property owner for a reported $1.1 million. Caritas is hoping to make the purchase with financial assistance from a local developer who is currently building housing in Brookline.
“We are optimistic [that through] the local linkage requirement in the town of Brookline … the funds will be forthcoming,” said Winkeller.
In addition to the Brookline building, Caritas is close to purchasing a 62-unit property in Salem from Winn Development Co. of Boston. There are about 16 lodging houses in Salem, but this is one of the largest in that city. When the acquisition is completed, the Salem property will be one of the four largest properties that Caritas owns. In June, Caritas acquired its largest property, a 68-room property on Dudley Street near Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury.
These are the first properties that Caritas is purchasing in Brookline and Salem. Caritas is also pursuing a 22-unit building on Spear Street in Quincy. Caritas already owns a 12-room building on Mechanic Street in Quincy.
