Planning Office For Urban Affairs

About Planning Office For Urban Affairs

The Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA) is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in 1969 by the Archdiocese of Boston. POUA has developed nearly 3,000 units of affordable and mixed-income housing, including rental, homeownership and cooperative housing in 31 communities, with debt and equity financing in excess of $660 million. The office specializes in mixed-income family developments where they create broad economic diversity. Noteworthy examples of this include three award-winning developments, Rollins Square, a 184 -unit-mixed-income complex in Boston's South End, The St. Aidan, a 59 unit development in Brookline, both of which have been widely-praised as a premier example of high mission-oriented developments in very affluent neighborhoods, and the 57-unit Hayes Building at Railroad Square in Haverhill, the recipient of several awards including the ULI 2011 Jack Kemp Workforce Housing Model of Excellence. POUA completed the 51-unit family affordable rental 135 Lafayette Development in the Point Neighborhood of Salem, MA in December 2013 and completed the Uphams Crossing Residential Development at Uphams Corner in Dorchester, MA in the fall of 2015, which includes 80 affordable apartments with 20 apartments set aside for formerly homeless families, and received both Affordable Housing Finance Magazine's Readers' Choice Award for Best Family Housing in 2016, and Preservation Massachusetts's Mayor Menino Legacy Award in 2017. POUA has converted the Boston Young Men’s Christian Union building in downtown Boston into 46 units of affordable housing, including 26 units for people who are currently or have been homeless; renovated a historic dormitory building on the Cardinal Cushing Center campus in Hanover into mixed-income workforce housing. POUA's developments serve families with children; homeless individuals and families; frail elderly residents; the working poor; people with HIV/AIDS; and middle-income residents.