Today, IBA is at a watershed. It can sit back and take stock of its accomplishments, and there are many. Its budget is about $5 million annually (for both IBA and the development entities), raised from a variety of public and private sources; its staff numbers about ninety, and it coordinates the activities of about 100 volunteers. Policymaking is instituted by the board of directors, consisting of twenty representatives elected by IBA members. Through the board, residents control all major and many minor decisions, from development to rental and management policy.

Measured by its own goals – to combat poverty and community deterioration, to prevent the dispersal of residents and minimize dislocation, and to improve housing and living conditions – it succeeds. Nearly 3,000 people now live in Villa Victoria, many of them the same people who lived in substandard conditions on Parcel 19. The South End Puerto Rican community has been stabilized and a new middle class is growing.

Villa Victoria’s success contributes to the South End and the city of Boston. IBA pays interest on mortgages worth more than $18 million; it pays nearly $200,000 per year in real-estate taxes, in addition to utility bills, insurance, and other items that benefit Boston’s private sector. It has created eighty permanent jobs and many more temporary ones for construction workers and others. IBA and Villa Victoria have become nationally and internationally known as models for community development.