Affordable housing builders in Chinatown are having to choose between realizing their vision of affordable family homeownership and actually securing the funding to break ground.

The proposal for an affordable housing development at 290 Tremont Street has been scaled back in recent months, cutting two full stories in August and going from 132 units to 108.

Another project change arrived in October bumping the unit count up to 111. That was accomplished, however, by splitting up three family units into 6 studio apartments, a move that would seem to run counter to the project’s stated goals of giving Chinatown more long-term housing for families.

Müge Ündemir, director of real estate for the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), told The Boston Guardian that the organization had made the changes to improve the project’s funding prospects.

Like most affordable housing developments, 290 Tremont’s funding comes largely from government entities.

Ündemir said that while ACDC would love to offer locals a chance to fully own affordable units, homeowner funding in Massachusetts comes almost exclusively through MassHousing’s CommonWealth Builder program. Compared to the multitude of rental funding sources established over the years, affordable ownership units have much stiffer competition and worse odds of getting funded.

“[It’s] a very volatile environment in Massachusetts and honestly everywhere,” Ündemir said. “There’s only one source of ownership funding here and it’s a very competitive process that’s currently being revamped. We anticipate that they won’t have the amount of funding we need for this project to build out those homeownership units. A lot of projects in Boston are feeling the same pressure, and you have to decide whether to make that pivot or take the risk.”

Downsizing the trio of three-bedroom units to six studio apartments was also done with an eye toward government funding. When officials compare projects they use per-unit cost as a metric, and splitting units up potentially houses more people for the same cost. While ACDC wants to give larger families housing options, doing so comes at the expense of the project's competitive chances.

That said, the changes didn’t spark any pushback from the community during an October 7 public meeting to discuss them. Apart from some unusually contentious interactions with union representatives displeased that ACDC wouldn’t commit to any labor decisions until the project was further along, nobody spoke up to comment on the updated project.

City officials are moving this update through the development pipeline quickly, with public comment closing October 21 to get the proposal before the Boston Planning and Development Agency board during its October 16 meeting.

After that, it’s a question of whether ACDC can secure the money. The project was submitted to the state October 2 for the most recent funding round, and response timing can vary. Ündemir said ACDC could hear back as soon as January, which could get construction underway as quickly as fall 2026. If the project doesn’t get funding this time, ACDC would resubmit in January, which would move any potential response back to the summer.

Once construction does begin, it would take roughly two years from breaking ground to project completion.

Ündemir was cautiously optimistic about the project’s chances. Development budgets have tightened citywide, with many larger proposals going on hold while stakeholders wait for the economy to improve and questions like tariffs to settle.

“Building is difficult in general but we’re capable of doing it,” she said. “The city has prioritized the need for affordable housing and is trying to make sure we’re not limited by [bureaucratic] roadblocks. The hardship comes from trying to find a way to close these gaps in construction costs. Everything is just so expensive, and we only have so many sources to fund this project.”