A housing dream come true
It’s been a decade since the launch of Harvard’s 20/20/2000 initiative, the University’s 20-year, $20 million, low-interest loan program to help create low- and middle-income housing in Boston and Cambridge. A ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday (Oct. 30) marked another success story, this one at the Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Cooperative on the Blessed Sacrament campus in Jamaica Plain. There were 1,600 applicants for the 36 units available; 14 families have already moved in. “This is fulfilling a dream that a lot of folks had for many years,” said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, one of the speakers at the event. “If you listen to some folks out there today, they don’t understand what affordable housing, workforce housing is all about. … It is so desperately needed.” The Blessed Sacrament campus has been one of the largest Boston recipients of 20/20/2000 funding, which has so far helped build 4,350 affordable units in 120 projects in the...