Congressman Barney Frank, Secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development Gregory Bialecki, and Selectman Jane Donahue were on hand Monday morning to officially break ground at The Village at 815 Main Street, an 49-unit affordable rental-housing development that was reinvigorated by federal stimulus funds after private financiers backed out during the recession.

The project is being developed by JKS Village LLC, a division of JK Scanlan Company, Inc., of East Falmouth.  It is the first project in Massachusetts, and one of the first projects in the country, to close by using the Tax Credit Exchange Program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, said Charles Eisenberg, the consultant who shepherded the project through the approval process.

Tax Credit Exchange funds were awarded to "shovel-ready" projects. Rep. Frank joked that he depends on his staffers to remind him of the details of the complicated program - "I'm not going to explain it to you because I forget how it works," he said - but explained that the financing for low-income housing tax credits were traditionally bought by banks to reduce taxes on the banks' profits. When the economy collapsed, there were suddenly no more profits whose taxes needed to be reduced, so the market for the credits dried up as well.The stimulus act enabled the Federal government to purchase those tax credits.

The construction was additionally financed by a $2.1 million, long-term fixed-rate loan from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP).  The loan is funded by monies from a 1990 law that requires companies that purchase Massachusetts banks to make loan funds available to the MHP.  

The development will include 11 one-bedroom units, 35 two-bedroom units and 3 three-bedroom units.  All will be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, which is set at $51,480 for a family of four. In addition, five units will be set aside for households earning 30 percent of the area median income. 

Eisenberg said that 70 percent of the units will be initially set aside for Wareham residents.

Ruston Lodi, director of public affairs at MHP, praised the town for allowing this mix of multiple-bedroom units so that the development could specifically attract people who need an affordable place to live as they start a family but are not ready yet to buy a home.

Many of the officials spoke of the project as not only providing affordable housing opportunities for Wareham residents, but also providing jobs in the construction industry.

"This site was dead in its tracks when tax credits went," said Secretary Bialecki.  "The groundbreaking today is because of the stimulus."

Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) echoed his comments, citing the 45 workers currently on the site to do the foundation and site work, the 100 workers anticipated on site as the carpentry work begins, and the families that will eventually be living at the site.

"This is about our future, investing in our future," Sen. Pacheco said.

Selectman Jane Donahue spoke of the project's benefit to the large number of people in Wareham who need affordable housing, as well as the project's benefit to the town's affordable housing goals.  She also thanked the developers for working with neighbors and the neighborhood. 

Rep. Frank praised this collaboration.

"If we take time to do the things right as the town has done, the developers, the construction workers have done, these projects are an asset,"  Frank said.  "The objection about building [affordable] housing, the fears are not borne out," he continued, predicting that once the project was done and families were living in the homes, "nobody is going to think this was a problem."

Lodi echoed his prediction.

"We know there was some controversy [about the project]," he said.  "But it's going to be a first-class development when it's all done.  People are going to be pleased with it."

John Scanlan, president and founder of JK Scanlan, said that the project was something to take pride in.

"This is a project the people who live here can be proud of, the people who work on it can be proud of, and the Town of Wareham can be proud of," said Scanlan.