BOSTON -- Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh announced March 22 that $28 million in funding awards have been given to 12 affordable housing projects in Boston, including two projects being developed by the Archdiocese of Boston's Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA).

"We are committed to creating a Boston where everyone who wants to live here, can afford to. I thank our local, state and federal partners for these housing investments that create good jobs and fuel our economy," said Mayor Walsh.

Out of the estimated 837 housing units that will be created or preserved, 122 units will be developed by POUA.

In Mattapan, Caribbean Integration Community Development, a Boston-based organization that creates affordable housing in areas with large numbers of people of Caribbean decent, is the lead sponsor in a project that will create 76 units of mixed-use developments, with POUA working on the development and AFL-CIO, an umbrella federation for United States unions, helping to provide funding.

Named Cote Village, the completed project will consist of one large building and four townhouse-style dwellings, and is being built on the site of an abandoned car dealership.

POUA also partnered with St. Francis House, the largest day shelter in Massachusetts, to redevelop 48 Boylston Street in Boston for The Boylston Street Rehabilitation project.

The project will create 46 units, 26 of which will be used for homeless or extremely low income individuals. St. Francis House, which is located at 39 Boylston St. in Boston, just across the street from the proposed project, is its lead sponsor.

POUA president Lisa B. Alberghini told The Pilot March 30 that the Planning Office is still working on getting approvals and finalizing designs for the two projects, but she hopes construction will begin on the projects in late 2016 or early 2017.

"The mayor's awards were a huge boost in helping these two projects move forward," she said.

A ministry of the Archdiocese of Boston, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs works to create safe affordable and mixed-income housing across the greater Boston area. Since its establishment in 1969, the non-profit developer has created 2,700 units of affordable and mixed-income housing, providing homes for more than 11,000 people.