The Women’s Institute is a mission-driven developer deeply committed to serving vulnerable populations through a service-enriched housing model - prioritizing the economic stability needs of the adults and children who live in our properties in addition to our bricks-and-mortar development of affordable housing units. Through our work, we seek to ensure that low-income people throughout our region have the opportunity to live in quality housing that is affordable within their household budgets, and also have access to services and supports to achieve economic stability for their families.
What We Do.... The Women’s Institute creates quality affordable housing as a developer or developer consultant, and offers over 25 years of expertise in all stages of development, including:
- Envisioning new opportunities
- Creating partnerships
- Feasibility and Design
- Site Search
- Financial Packaging and Tax Credit Projects
- Fiscal Management
- Construction Management
- Operations
- Asset Management
The Women’s Institute is available to assist organizations and groups in the following ways:
Asset Mapping: The Women's Institute works with our partners to identify and map existing community assets, surface gaps that a new project can fill, and solicit substantial input and direction from local residents, elected officials, business leaders and other important players in the neighborhood of the proposed development.
Project Feasibility: As an industry expert, the Women's Institute assists non-profit organizations in the early planning of real estate development projects, including conceptual planning, assessment of zoning and political support, financial feasibility and identification of partners, development team members, and consultants.
Financial Packaging: The Women's Institute staff brings particular expertise in developing projects utilizing low-income housing tax credits and has successfully worked to expand the commitment of numerous public and private lenders and funders in Massachusetts and Connecticut to funding program space as part of residential projects.
Project Management: The Women's Institute has significant capacity in project management, leading the various components of a project that make a non-profit organization's vision of a new building into a reality. On every project, we work collaboratively with real estate professionals, such as architects, engineers, lenders, attorneys, public officials, service providers and the project sponsor, to manage community processes, zoning, closings, construction, lease-up, and first-year operation.
The Housing Continuum: While the Women’s Institute focuses on permanent housing development with complementary supportive services, we also have extensive experience in transitional housing projects as well as rental and homeownership-based projects. We have built emergency shelters for domestic violence survivors, transitional housing for individuals recovering from substance abuse, housing that is structured to be affordable to the lowest-income families (those earning less than 50% of Area Median Income), and housing that responds to the changing needs of individuals living with HIV/AIDS, allowing them to remain in the same housing as their health needs evolve.