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 over 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 $675 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, which has been widely-praised as a premier example of a high mission-oriented development in a very affluent neighborhood; The Union at 48 Boylston, the conversion of a vacant historic building into 46 units of affordable housing, including 26 units for people who are currently or have been homeless, and approximately 12,000sf of space for St. Francis House administrative offices, which has won Preservation Massachusetts' Charles Eliot Award in 2020 and the National Affordable Housing Finance Readers’ Choice Award for Best Historic Rehab Project in 2019, among others; and Cote Village, a partnership with Caribbean Integration Community Development that created a mixed-income, mixed-use development comprised of 76 units of affordable and workforce housing, commercial space, and community-oriented activity space. Cote Village converted a vacant, abandoned property into a thriving part of the Mattapan neighborhood, creating a true mixed-income community that provides housing opportunities to a diverse range of households in an integrated setting; the development recently won Best Family Housing in the National Affordable Housing Finance Magazine's Readers Choice Awards for 2022. POUA's developments serve families with children; homeless individuals and families; elderly residents; the working class; people with HIV/AIDS; and middle-income residents.