Massachusetts’ housing finance agency designed a program to catalyze mixed-income development and offer affordable options in one of the country’s most restricted housing markets — and it’s working.
MassHousing’s Bringing Innovation to Lending and Development (BILD) program leverages private capital and public equity to finance mixed-income multifamily housing development across the commonwealth.
Already the program has contributed to the creation of 44 development projects with a combined 6,500 units of housing. BILD’s success offers an avenue to meet mounting demand in the market. It’s an important step, considering that the state would need to add 222,000 homes by 2035 to meet local demand, according to the Unlocking Housing Production Commission.
How the BILD model works
Usually, mixed-income multifamily developments receive around 60% of financing from mortgage debt and the remaining amount from sponsors or outside equity.
BILD instead offers below-market equity via the Momentum Fund. The result, a FORGE Loan, blends permanent senior debt originated by Berkadia and purchased by Freddie Mac with a subordinate permanent second mortgage loan from MassHousing.
“The Momentum Fund will help expand our state’s housing supply in a way that incentivizes the market to build housing for people of all income levels,” said Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus in a 2025 press release. “And the revolving nature of the fund ensures continued funds for future developments for years to come.”
Why it works
BILD projects must have at least 50 units, and at least 20% of these must be reserved for households earning 80% of area median income. Plus, the income restrictions must last the length of the loan term or 15 years, whichever is longer.
In “A New Financing Model to Catalyze Mixed-Income Housing,” a study from the Urban Institute, researchers Laurie Goodman, Daniel Hornung, Aniket Mehrotra and Kathryn Reynolds noted that: “The BILD program is designed to maximize public dollars to mobilize private capital, both debt and equity financing. On the debt side, MassHousing ‘de-risks’ the Freddie Mac-backed loan by taking a first-loss position in the event of borrower default. As a result, Freddie Mac is willing to give the lender both more favorable terms and a larger loan than in a typical structure.”
Implementation elsewhere
For states aiming to boost affordable and market-rate inventory, a program like BILD provides a pathway for secure, scalable development. The key, experts explained, is strong internal financing or a trusted outside partner.
“States should rigorously understand housing production trends and any barriers to mixed-income production and structure their program to meet local needs,” said the Urban Institute researchers. “Innovative public financing models demonstrate alternative approaches to public subsidies for creating housing. By making the math work for financiers and developers, entities such as housing finance agencies can help the private sector serve public needs, particularly for segments not well served through other programs.”