Boston secures $9 million in MassWorks grants for three affordable housing projects

BOSTON — July 19, 2026 — Boston lands $9 million in state MassWorks grants for Nubian Square, Charlestown, and Jamaica Plain housing projects. Mayor Michelle Wu and Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Michael Keneally announced the three awards July 19 at the long-vacant Blair Lot in Roxbury: $1.5 million for the Nubian Square Ascends mixed-use project, $3.5 million for the Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment, and $4 million for the Mildred Haley Infrastructure Project. The Nubian Square Ascends project, led by minority developer Richard Taylor and partner Kai Grant, will bring lab space, artist housing, a 300-seat cultural hall, and more than 900 jobs to a site that has sat empty for up to three decades, with the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology anchoring 68,000 square feet of life sciences training space. State Representative Nica Legerdo, praising the Mildred Haley award as "about four times the average grant" in its MassWorks category, nonetheless identified roughly $170 million in total funding still needed to complete the estimated $700 million Jamaica Plain redevelopment.