Andover Community
Trust (ACT) is a 501(c)(3), non-profit Massachusetts corporation,
established in 1992. Based on the strong belief that diversity
is an important contributor to vital and livable communities,
ACT advocates for and develops permanently affordable homes in
Andover. ACT completed its first permanently affordable single
family owner-occupied home on Haverhill Street at the end of 2001
in partnership with the Greater Lawrence Technical School. The
students from the school also are building ACT’s second home
on Heather Drive, under the supervision of their teachers. Construction
on that home will be completed in the summer of 2006.
ACT builds modest three-bedroom homes to meet the needs of eligible
households whose income is between 60 and 80 percent of the area
median income. In 2006, a four-person household with total household
income between $45,000 and $59,600 is income eligible. ACT gives
preference to households with school-age children and with a member
who works, lives or has children in school in Andover.
The land for ACT’s first home was
donated by developer Willard Perkins. The land for the second
home was donated by an individual who purchased the 15,000 square-foot
lot in the 1950s but never built on it. ACT’s third home
was donated by the developers of Casco Crossing (Steve Stapinski
and King Weinstein) on River Road. ACT has received donations
of pro bono professional services from local attorneys, architects
and civil engineers. ACT also has received grants from the Abbot
and Dorothy H. Stevens Foundation and the Nathaniel and Elizabeth
P. Stevens Foundation, the Webster Family Foundation, the Essex
County Community Foundation, the Smith Purdon Fund, the Rotary
Club of Andover, UNICO and from several local banks, including Butler Bank,
Citizens Bank, Enterprise Bank and Trust Company, River Bank and TD Banknorth, as well as donations from individuals.
This generosity makes it possible to develop and sell an ACT home
for $150,000 or less. ACT’s greatest need is for land on
which to build “homes people can afford.”
