The Castle Square Tenants Organization, Inc. is a nonprofit, 501-c-3 organization, based in Boston, MA. CSTO owns and operates 500 units of affordable housing at the Castle Square Apartments. Its mission is to preserve Castle Square Apartments as affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents into perpetuity and provide comprehensive community and social supports for residents of Castle Square Apartments and the surrounding community. Castle Square residents are approximately 65% Asian-American, 30% African-American, 3% Latino, and 2% Caucasian. Sixty-three percent of potential participants’ families have incomes below the poverty line.
There are currently eight members of the CSTO Board of Directors, 10 members on the Program Committee consisting of 2 adults and 8 youth, 8 members on the Tenant Management Committee and 3 members on the Ownership Committee. The Board of Directors are strongly representative of the population served by CSTO in that all members of the Board are residents of Castle Square and the racial and ethnic makeup of the Board reflects that of the residents of Castle Square Apartments. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors. All other staff, volunteers, and contractors who manage programs report to the Executive Director, Deborah Backus.
The VISTA Member will improve the capacity and quality of the community wireless network at Castle Square as well as assisting other sites undertake similar activities. The focus will be on developing organizational capacity to meet resident needs through both new technology and providing training and technical support.