ANNUAL REPORT
2021-2022
Dear Friends,
We at Dorchester Bay are inspired every day by the fortitude of our community and the impact of our collaborative effort. The neighborhoods we serve are at the heart of all we do - they are extraordinary, vital, and full of collective power.
The past two years found our community recovering from the impacts of the pandemic and economic uncertainty, which disproportionately affected our neighborhoods.
We worked side by side with residents and partners toward our shared goal of a stronger, healthier, and more financially viable place to live and work, despite the many challenges we faced.
There’s nothing we can’t achieve together. Just look at all that we have accomplished since our last annual report:
We launched Dorchester in Motion focusing on health equity and environmental and transit justice. We distributed hundreds of fans and supplies during this summer's record-breaking heatwave, and reached out to neighborhoods about the impacts of climate change on our health.
We rehabbed the historic Pierce building, a manifestation of Dorchester Bay's commitment to building a strong, thriving Uphams Corner. Pierce is home not only to Dorchester Bay, but it will be home to small businesses who need the space to open, grow, and thrive in the neighborhood.
We also completed construction on Indigo Block, a LEED Gold certified mixed-use residential and commercial development with 80 units of affordable rental housing, nine units of affordable homeownership, and 23,000 square feet of light industrial commercial space.
We began construction on 9 Leyland - the neighborhood’s first supportive senior housing development. In partnership with Hebrew Senior Life, 9 Leyland will feature 43 units of affordable rental supportive housing and enriched services for seniors to promote healthy aging and a high quality of life. The development will have a community space to offer healthcare, social programming, a library, lounge and laundry facilities. 9 Leyland will open in summer 2023.
We capitalized the Dorchester Bay Neighborhood Loan Fund to nearly $5 million and provided deep and responsive technical assistance - helping hundreds of businesses start, sustain, recover, and grow.
In partnership with JVS, Charlestown Adult Education & CharlestownWorks, Project Place, and Tufts University/MyTERN Program, we collectively launched the Boston Workforce and Reentry Coalition to connect returning citizens and other local opportunity seekers to training, education, and sustainable employment opportunities.
We advocated for legislation, the Climate Roadmap Bill and the HERO bill, to fund more affordable housing development, green infrastructure, and climate change mitigation measures.
We will continue to invest in community engagement, support people returning home from incarceration, connect people to sustainable employment, and create more affordable homes.
Thank you to each of our supporters, every resident, every small business owner, every partner organization, every donor, every member of the Dorchester Bay staff and board, and every Dorchester Bay friend. You have all helped to sustain the neighborhoods we serve.
Dorchester Bay will continue to do our part. We are deeply grateful to have you all as partners in this work, and to have our community as its north star.
Let the spirit and collective power that have kept us connected through these tough years keep us all committed to the work ahead.
Sincerely,
Kimberly R. Lyle
Chief Executive Officer
Paul Black
President, Board of Directors
The spirit of our community strengthens Dorchester Bay’s commitment to fulfilling our mission. Together, we’re building an equitable and sustainable community in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhoods through civic engagement, affordable housing, and economic development.
For 44 years, Dorchester Bay has built and preserved 1,200 units of affordable rental & owner-occupied homes, provided more than $4.2M in small business capital to entrepreneurs, and served 3,100 residents and families.
Our work is possible with the support of community residents and partners
- The Power of Us.
Tameka, Dorchester Bay Resident
Resident and Community Engagement
Our Resident and Community Engagement Team supports residents who live in our communities to ensure that their voices are heard.
When the pandemic left residents feeling heightened needs for food, essential supplies, and support with rent, Dorchester Bay was there. We provided rental assistance through our partnership with Action for Boston Development (ABCD) and helped residents apply to the state-funded Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program to ensure that families could continue to remain in their homes.
We distributed thousands of pounds of fresh food in collaboration with The Food Project and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), and 3,600 free meals through the City of Boston’s "Summer Eats" free meals program. Stop and Shop Supermarkets provided over 800 bags of groceries, and we received $2,000 worth of in-kind fresh food from the Epiphany School through their partnership with Trader Joe’s. We also partnered with Bowdoin Street Health Center to help 40 families purchase food and essential supplies at local grocery stores, and 20 families with newborns and toddlers purchased baby formula and diapers through the Baby Bucks program.
We also launched our Dorchester in Motion initiative focusing on health equity and environmental and transit justice, distributing hundreds of fans during this summer's record-breaking heatwave, and reaching out to neighborhoods about the impacts of climate change on our health.
Our team connected with residents through monthly resident meetings, programs, and events, such as our weekly Rock and Roll Seniors program, which gives senior residents opportunities to design their own programming to reduce isolation, and our ten-week Tech Goes Home program, which teaches residents computing fundamentals in a comfortable environment. In November, we honored five outstanding active participants in our community at our annual award ceremony, and a hundred residents showed up to celebrate and receive gift cards for their Thanksgiving celebrations.
Our team will continue to work hard to understand the needs of our residents so that we can provide the best resources for their success.
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"Hi, I'm Tameka. I've been living in our Upham’s Corner community for 10+ years. I have grown to know a lot of people and businesses and I am very pleased and proud of the people I have come across during my stay. We treat each other with respect and look out for one another. It feels good to see people in the community and give hugs like they are your family.
My experience being a Dorchester Bay resident is great. They really care about the residents and the community. They are understanding and patient. If I don't know something they will break it down for me. The programming is awesome, I took the Tech goes home class - great instructor. I also took the one-on-one hand braiding class that was amazing as well. The staff members are tremendous... They do not talk down to me because I have a disability which I love about them... [they are] great and respectful."
3,600
Boston "Summer Eats" free meals distributed
352
Fans distributed
49
Tech Goes Home Graduates
6,000
Essential supplies distributed
Affordable Housing and Commercial Development
The demand for affordable housing continues to grow as the devastating economic impact of the pandemic exacerbates the existing needs of the people we serve, and the cost of rent continues to increase. Dorchester Bay’s real estate work is community-focused, and we remain committed to applying the principle of equitable development to our real estate work - we build homes that are affordable for people in Upham's Corner, and we build commercial spaces where local businesses can stabilize, grow, and create jobs for local residents.
At a moment when Upham’s Corner is poised to see highly anticipated revitalization come to the area, Dorchester Bay is leading the way in providing affordable housing and commercial space that allows residents to remain, grow, and thrive in the neighborhood.
S.B. PIERCE BUILDING
For over 40 years, the historic S.B. Pierce Building has been Dorchester Bay’s home. Our newly completed rehabilitation of Pierce and the strong community turnout at our open house are manifestations of Dorchester Bay's commitment to building a strong, thriving Upham’s Corner, together with our neighbors and partners. The renovation included new windows and façade restoration; a fully ADA compliant front entry and elevator; new heating and cooling systems; and new restrooms and kitchen facilities for tenants. The interior modernization improved the second-floor space to support local entrepreneurs, and JP Morgan Chase Bank will operate a community branch from the first floor, offering expanded access to affordable home loans, low-cost checking accounts, and financial health education workshops. Our investment in the restoration of this neighborhood asset marks a turning point in the long-planned revitalization of Upham's Corner as an arts and innovation district.
9 LEYLAND
Built on a site that has sat vacant for over 40 years, 9 Leyland will be the first affordable senior housing development in Upham's Corner. In the face of a growing senior population, the majority of whom are low-income, all 43 units will be affordable with the majority of units reserved for seniors earning up to 30% and 50% Area Median Income (AMI). The project's universal design features will ensure the building and units will be accessible to residents and visitors with a range of abilities and accessibility needs. 9 Leyland will achieve Passive House certification, which would maximize energy efficiency and further efforts around environmental sustainability in a community that has been disproportionately impacted by climate change and health disparities. The construction of 9 Leyland will be completed and residents will move in during mid/late summer 2023.
DUDLEY TERRACE APARTMENTS
This 56-unit, 5-building scattered site project has been in Dorchester Bay’s portfolio since the 1980s. With initial tax credit and affordable housing funding in 2000, DBEDC created affordable rental opportunities for this project. After two decades more repairs were needed and in 2020, the project was repurchased using new debt and tax credits that funded over $5M in renovations to this new ownership entity, Dudley Terrace Apartments LLC. Building envelopes received masonry repair and siding replacement, along with all new roofs and windows. The project made improvements to common areas and entry doors, while tenant units received various degrees of repair and replacement to their kitchens and baths. Renovations continued during the COVID pandemic and the last phase was completed in June 2022. The project’s buildings are now significantly improved and more affordable due to dedicated efforts spent planning and executing this project since 2015.
INDIGO BLOCK
Indigo Block is a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that includes 89 units of affordable housing and 23,000 square feet of light industrial and office space that Dorchester Bay developed with Escazu Development, Boston Capital Development, and Newmarket Community Partners. The project transformed an underutilized site adjacent to the Upham’s Corner Stop on the Fairmount Line into affordable housing and local job opportunities. Despite numerous pandemic related challenges, the project was completed with few delays. The first phase of the project, the six-story, 80-unit mixed-income, affordable rental housing building, was completed in 2021 and was fully rented by the end of the year. The light industrial and office building was completed this year, and Dorchester Bay is now in lease negotiations with a commercial tenant that plans to occupy the entire building and provide employment opportunities to local residents. The final phase of the development, nine below market homeownership units spread across 4 two-to-three family homes, will be occupied by first time homebuyers.
COLUMBIA CROSSING
Columbia Crossing is a mixed-use, transit-oriented development proposed by Dorchester Bay and POAH for the former Dorchester Savings Bank site on Columbia Road. Selected through a competitive Request for Proposal issued by the landowner, Dudley Neighbors Incorporated, Columbia Crossing will rehabilitate the historic Dorchester Savings Bank building and replace an existing addition with a premier presentation space referred to as the Glow Box, for arts, culture, and other community-oriented commercial tenants, contributing to Upham’s Corner as an Arts & Innovation District anchored by the Strand Theatre (located across the street). The project will produce 48 new affordable rental units, including artist housing and associated arts amenity space. Columbia Crossing received Boston Planning & Development Agency approval in November 2022 and was awarded City funding in February 2023. Construction is expected to begin in 2024.
Small Business
Comfort Kitchen owners, Dorchester Bay loan and grant recipients
(Photo courtesy of Stefanie Belnavis of The Diahann Project)
Dorchester Bay provides capital and technical assistance to small businesses in Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale. Most of these neighborhoods are some of the hardest hit by COVID19.
Through our technical assistance and loan offerings, we help over 360 businesses per year meet their goals to startup, stabilize, and grow their businesses. In the past two years, Dorchester Bay Neighborhood Business Loans directly made loans totaling $998K to 29 small businesses and leveraged $460,000 in indirect financing through our lending partners.
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Biplaw Rai, Managing Partner, Nyacko Pearl Perry, OD Partner, Kwasi Kwaa, Chef Partner, Rita Ferreira, Branding Partner
Comfort Kitchen is a Black-owned, immigrant-owned, and woman-owned small business that celebrates the ingredients and flavors of the African diaspora — global comfort food — connected from Asia to the Americas.
“As an immigrant and BIPOC, it's hard to get a standard loan, let alone for the restaurant industry,” said Biplaw Rai, managing partner. “That is a barrier for us. Dorchester Bay was on the list that everyone recommended. They were the first ones we approached - we are across the street so it made sense for us to partner. We were able to meet one on one with DBEDC’s financial advisors – some of the grants that came from DBEDC were some of the most beneficial of those that we received.”
The team believes that food is a vital aspect of community building. “In the end of 2019, we did a community outreach asking what the community really wanted from Dorchester. What came out was a community centered place, a place to meet.”
Located in the historic Upham's Corner Comfort Station built in 1912, Comfort Kitchen prioritizes hiring and paying living wages to BIPOC staff. Their website states: “Upham’s Corner is at a tipping point of American urban renewal. Change is inevitable, however efforts can be made to engage the community in the change process and bring new things in that respect the existing culture and history.”
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Franklin Marval, owner, Cyanta Studio
Franklin Marval is a graphic designer, muralist, sign-maker, and community activist who owns Cyanta Studio, a small business in Dorchester.
Franklin learned about Dorchester Bay EDC through a friend who works in finance: “I told him that the regular banks did not lend me money when I knocked on their doors. He told me: "Go and talk to your local banks like Dorchester Bay.”
Dorchester Bay’s relationship with Franklin began in 2013 and continues today with Brenda Bobadilla, Associate Director of Small Business, who recently helped him with his second loan in 2022. “I will always be grateful for your patience, and for guiding me through the process, that for many starting is not such a friendly process.”
“I have an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Franklin, “and what's better than producing, selling, and having a company doing what you have always loved.”
Franklin identified the pandemic as “the most difficult thing I have experienced personally and at the company level,” saying that he lost many clients and pending jobs.
However, Franklin found support through Dorchester Bay and Score Boston: “I was working during that time with a coach from Score Boston, who were and still are my virtual support partners. I have a lot to thank Elizabeth Brown, my Coach, for the constant work we have done, and continue to do. And it was thanks to Dorchester Bay that I was introduced to Score Boston at one of the many events they offer to support small businesses. Thank you.”
Franklin Marval, owner of Cyanta Studio, a Dorchester Bay loan recipient
$998K
Lent to small businesses
$460K
Indirect financing leveraged through our lending partners
360+
Small businesses receive technical assistance and loan offerings per year
93%
Of businesses are minority owned
56%
Of business owners are women of color
29
Loans lent
37
Local jobs created
267
Jobs retained
Reentry Program
Shakir, Dorchester Bay Reentry Client
The Dorchester Bay Reentry Program is the Commonwealth’s first CDC-based reentry program for returning citizens to their community. Our mission is to reintegrate returning citizens into society and improve their self-sufficiency and economic prosperity. We provide job placement and resources to reduce prison recidivism and disrupt the cycles of incarceration and poverty.
Our reentry program is designed to meet individuals where they are, working with them to identify services that will benefit them and using a holistic approach to skill building, education, and mental health counseling.
Since the program's creation in 2008, we have assisted over 1,000 returning citizens. Through skill-building and supportive services upon their release, we give returning individuals the resources needed for a smooth and safe reentry into the community and a successful return to the workplace.
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Shakir spent half of his life incarcerated. Upon his release, he partnered with Dorchester Bay EDC, and we were honored to be part of his journey to reach his goals - from acquiring his first bank account to finding housing, access to services, and employment.
During his 30 years in prison, and guided by his faith, Shakir worked to make a difference in the lives of those struggling to find or stay on the path of reform. He understood that having the right mindset and support system was critical to his ability to find a path forward. Religion played a large part in Shakir’s mindset, and he attributes his faith to the change that has taken place in his life. He continues today in the faith and recently preached at his mosque.
“It is so important to remember that our past does not define who we are or our future. It was up to me to make the good choices that would lead me to a new way of life. With the help of [...] the folks at Dorchester Bay, I have my apartment, a great job, my faith, and a future filled with hope!” - Shakir Abdullah.
2,000+
Outreach calls placed
200+
Clients served, of them at least 132 were low-medium income clients
150+
Clients placed in training and/or housing programs, or connected with public services
79
Clients placed in employment opportunities
For 44 years, Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation has worked to fulfill its mission to build a strong, thriving, and diverse community in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhoods by preserving housing opportunities across income levels and providing civic engagement, leadership, and economic development opportunities for our community.
Ways to Give
Columbia Circle
The Dorchester Bay Columbia Circle Giving Society was founded in 2018 with founding members who are passionate corporate supporters and individual donors who are deeply committed to Dorchester Bay EDC’s mission.
The giving circle meets twice a year. The financial commitment is between $5,000 - $10,000 per year over a period of five years. Contributions of the Columbia Circle are eligible for the Massachusetts Community Investment Tax Credit (CITC).
Indigo Sustainers Club
The Indigo Sustainers Club, founded in 2021, is made up of supportive members of our community who understand the impact of recurrent donations. Club members help fund our vital work by giving at regular intervals in amounts that work for them. Advancing our mission involves daily expenses, such as transportation costs for program participants, or the purchase of food and other essentials in times of crisis. The generous contributions of these club members help keep our work on track. No matter the size of the donation, their impact on our mission is real. The work of Dorchester Bay EDC remains constant in part due to the recurring gifts of Indigo Sustainers Club Members.
We extend our warmest thanks to our donors for their generous support.
2021 Financials*
Liabilities and net Assets $230,619,238
Operating Revenues $28,906,989
Operating Expenses $26,130,611
Operating Income (loss) $2,776,378
Non-Operating Income $1,093,132
Net Income (loss) $3,869,510
* Check back in Summer 2023 for our updated 2022 financials.
