The Healey-Driscoll Administration recently announced nearly $33.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) awards to support housing, infrastructure, social services and economic development projects in 52 communities across Massachusetts. Many of the awards promote age-friendly projects that revamp and renovate housing, senior centers, sidewalks and promote accessibility.

At the same time, the administration is updating its Housing Choice Initiative to launch a new Rural and Small Town Housing Choice Community designation, giving smaller and more rural communities a clearer path to state recognition and resources for pro-housing policies. 

The federal fiscal 2025 CDBG awards, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC), will help small cities and towns undertake projects that benefit low- and moderate-income residents. Eligible municipalities applied individually or as part of a regional application. This year, HLC is issuing 27 competitive Community Development Fund awards totaling $25.7 million, along with $7.75 million for nine Mini-Entitlement communities, for a combined $33.47 million in funding.

Communities will use CDBG funds for a wide range of eligible activities, including housing rehabilitation, sidewalk and road improvements, planning studies, public facility upgrades and social services such as food pantries, youth programming and homelessness prevention. Awardees include communities on the Cape and Islands, in the Berkshires, in Gateway Cities and in rural Western and Central Massachusetts, underscoring the geographic reach and flexibility of the program.

In addition to these investments, HLC will launch a new Rural and Small Town Housing Choice Community (RST-HCC) designation in the 2026 round. Municipalities with 7,000 or less year-round population or under 500 persons per square mile qualify as “Rural and Small Towns.”

The Housing Choice Initiative, first created in 2018 and updated in 2025, recognizes municipalities that are producing housing and adopting local policies that support housing growth, such as pro-housing zoning, affordability programs and streamlined permitting. As part of the 2026 update, both the standard Housing Choice Community designation and the new RST-HCC designation will maintain existing housing production thresholds over the previous five years while slightly reducing the number of required “best practices” in response to feedback from communities and regional planning agencies. The updated designation criteria will make it easier for both rural and non-rural communities to qualify for Housing Choice status and

The Rural and Small Town Housing Choice Community designation requires one of four housing production thresholds, with lower best practice requirements than larger or more urban communities. For example, rural and small towns that have increased their year-round housing stock by at least 3% in the past five years would qualify with 8 best practice requirements. Communities that have grown more slowly can qualify by combining housing growth with a specified number of best practices, including actions to expand affordable housing options. The lowest rate of housing unit growth for RST–HCC designation is 1.5 percent over the last 5 years and 9 best practices.

Federal fiscal 2025 Community Development Block Grant Awards

Mini-Entitlement communities

• Amherst — Kendrick Park Sidewalks and social services — $850,000
• Chelsea — Voke Park Project and social services — $850,000
• Gardner — Downtown Phase V Construction and social services — $850,000
• Greenfield — Housing rehab program (3 units), Sidewalk reconstruction program and social services — $850,000
• North Adams — Senior Center Phase IV improvements and Prospect Hill area road improvements — $950,000
• Southbridge — Housing rehab program (5 units) and code enforcement and commercial rehab — $850,000
• Wareham — Housing rehab program (8 units) and social services — $850,000
• Webster — Aldrich Street reconstruction — $850,000
• West Springfield — West School Street and Willard Avenue water main replacement and social services — $850,000

Community Development Fund awards

• Athol — South Street Phase III (Freedom to Tunnel) — $850,000
• Barre — Fir Street Improvement Project and planning for South Barre slum and blight inventory — $691,000
• Beverly — Housing rehab program (12 units) — $850,000
• Brewster (joint with Dennis and Wellfleet) — Housing rehab program (13 units) and social services— $1,250,000
• Chester — Prospect Street Phase 4 — $850,000
• Chesterfield (joint with Cummington, Goshen, Plainfield, Savoy, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington) — Housing rehab program (12 units) and social services — $1,233,522
• East Brookfield — Planning for ADA self-evaluation and transition plan, facilities assessment study and Off-Main infrastructure plan — $458,000
• Edgartown (joint with West Tisbury and Aquinnah) — Housing rehab program (13 units) and social services— $1,250,000
• Gill (joint with New Salem) — Housing rehab program (9 units) — $900,000
• Great Barrington (joint with Egremont and Stockbridge) — Housing rehab program (14 units) — $1,250,000
• Hinsdale (joint with Florida) — Housing rehab program (11 units) — $950,000
• Holbrook — Housing rehab program (10 units) — $850,000
• Huntington — Design for Blandford Hill Road infrastructure improvements, Stanton Avenue improvement project phase II and ADA self-evaluation and transition plan — $850,000
• Lenox (joint with Sandisfield) — Housing rehab program (12 units) — $1,050,000
• Mashpee — Housing rehab program (10 units) — $850,000
• Methuen — Housing rehab program (8 units) — $838,206
• Montague — Avenue A streetscape improvements construction project and social services — $850,000
• New Marlborough (joint with Mount Washington and Otis) — Housing rehab program (15 units) — $1,250,000
• Northbridge — Church Avenue reconstruction, Phase 2 — $850,000
• Oak Bluffs (joint with Tisbury and Chilmark) — Housing rehab program (12 units) and social services — $1,250,000
• Orange — Housing rehab project (3 units), Wheeler Memorial Library roof repair and replacement project and social services — $849,465
• Palmer — Front, Park and Kelly Streets Improvement Project (FPKIP) and social services — $850,000
• Randolph — Housing rehab program (8 units) and social services — $850,000
• Salisbury — Housing rehab program (3 units), Meaders Lane neighborhood infrastructure project and social services — $850,000
• Truro (joint with Provincetown, Harwich and Eastham) — Housing rehab program (13 units) and social services — $1,250,000
• Ware — Cottage Street Infrastructure Improvement Project, Phase One, and social services — $850,000
• Warren (joint with Millbury) — Design for senior center parking and neighborhood infrastructure improvements — $1,050,000