Innovate. Replicate. Celebrate!
Less than a month after the October groundbreaking of City of Homes—our new initiative to turn blighted properties in Springfield into affordable opportunities for first-time homebuyers—Way Finders had cause for another celebration. Our work led us to take home a 2024 Gateway Cities Innovator Award!
Each year at its Gateway Cities Innovation Summit, the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, or MassINC, recognizes those who implement novel and replicable solutions to challenges faced by our communities. This year’s summit focused on how Gateway Cities can play a leading role in unlocking housing opportunities for all. Way Finders was one of six statewide awardees to be so honored by the policy center in November.
I especially appreciate the nod to City of Homes for being innovative and replicable, because these are exactly the kinds of solutions we need across the state to address the crisis in housing affordability and availability. The crisis cannot be solved by continuing the same practices that led us here. It requires openness and willingness to pursue new approaches and new ways of working together. When an idea shows promise to further housing choice and opportunity, we must listen—and act to spread its impact and reach.
When retired housing court judge Dina Fein first approached Way Finders with the idea which became City of Homes, it was new to us. We had to educate ourselves and ask questions. We had to say, “Yes, let’s try this.” We built a pilot with partners who, like us, were drawn to Fein’s commitment to public service, which didn’t end when she retired from the bench. She took her experience and knowledge about the typical fate of blighted properties—the auction block, often becoming part of a remote owner’s rental portfolio—and envisioned a way to turn them into opportunities for first-time homebuyers. To spur reinvestment in the city she served.
The first phase of our pilot turned multi-million-dollar program focuses on six neighborhoods in Springfield. Way Finders expects to offer six homes for sale to qualified buyers selected via a lottery process in summer 2025, with another dozen in the pipeline soon after that. We aspire to roll out the initiative in Holyoke in the future.
The new process at the heart of City of Homes that Fein envisioned and operationalized—coined “special attorney receivership”—was included in the 2024 Affordable Homes Act, which paves the way for towns and cities across the state to follow in our footsteps. To boost affordable homeownership opportunities and family wealth—and catalyze neighborhood stabilization and reinvestment.
We are most grateful to Fein and our amazing supporters of City of Homes—most notably include the MassMutual Foundation, MassHousing, Baystate Health, and the City of Springfield.
To all those who care about housing and the economic vitality of our state, we urge you to remember that the best innovations are novel and replicable. Have an idea? Get in touch with Way Finders! And if you share our drive to improve the housing stability and well-being of families and individuals in the region and beyond, please support our work.
Sincerely,
Keith Fairey, President & CEO