In August and September of 2022, the Resident Leadership Academy had the wonderful opportunity to send our staff Sarah Byrnes, Resident Leadership Academy Director and Tiana Lawrence, Mel King Institute Program Associate along with several RLA trainers to participate in the overnight Retreat and Renewal program at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA. Kripalu is a well-known nonprofit educational organization that is centered on centuries-old teachings of yoga, mindfulness, and both personal and communal transformation. CLICK HERE to read more.

The Mel King Institute mourns the passing of Thomas Ruffen, who worked as a trainer at our Resident Leadership Academy. Thomas was an incredibly gifted organizer and community leader. His death is a senseless tragedy for the Mildred C. Hailey community and beyond. He will be missed by our staff, trainers, and the public housing residents he trained throughout Massachusetts.

In March the Mel King Institute recorded Thomas telling the story of how he, other residents, and GBIO secured $50 million in badly needed funding for Mildred C. Hailey. The story is available here.

As summer begins to wind down, many of us are beginning to plan our calendars for the fall. As you begin to do this, you will want to make sure that you include the MACDC Convention and Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 29 at Polar Park in Worcester (and online via Zoom).

The MACDC Convention (which happens just once every four years!) is always a special event.  It is not only the biggest community development event on the calendar in Massachusetts, but it is also a special opportunity to advance our theme for the day: United Communities Building Together!

Given the challenges of the past two-plus years, the need for unity and collective action within the community development field has never been greater.  That is why this event will bring together everyone in our field - CDC board members, community leaders, tenants, community development professionals, public officials, private sector allies, and others for day of celebration and collective action.  It will offer a unique set of opportunities:  

An opportunity to pause and celebrate

Notwithstanding the challenges and heartaches of the past two-plus years, indeed because of them, the Convention offers an important opportunity to pause and celebrate. And thankfully we have many exciting things to celebrate, including MACDC’s 40th anniversary as the policy and capacity building arm of the community development field.  We will recognize the extraordinary resiliency of our field and our communities in the face of unprecedented challenges. We will celebrate outstanding individuals and organizations that have made a difference in people’s lives. And we will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Community Investment Tax Credit – an example of what we can accomplished when we come together as a field to shape state policy.

An opportunity to build power and shape state policy

While we have much to celebrate, we also have much to left to do. So, this Convention, like our past events, will also focus on the future and taking collective action to shape it for the better.

One of the key elements of our Convention will be the Gubernatorial Candidate Forum.  The winner of the Governor’s race has attended our Convention for each of the past four election cycles and each time we have engaged those candidates with specific questions about their policy agenda and requested their support for specific policies. In response, the candidates have embraced key MACDC priorities such as the Small Business Technical Assistance program, the Community Investment Tax Credit, and closing racial homeownership disparities.  We will be inviting both of this year’s candidates to come and speak with us and to answer specific questions about their proposed policy agenda.   This will be our chance to demonstrate the power of United Communities, Building Together to the next Governor.

An opportunity to build your network

Regardless of your connection to the community development field, this event deserves a spot on your fall calendar because the Convention is always fun, inspiring, educational, and most importantly, impactful.  The MACDC Convention will offer something for everyone:

CDC Board members can connect with fellow board members across CDCs and learn about how they are addressing various challenges and opportunities in their organizations and communities. 

Tenants, community members, and other neighborhood activists can network with and learn from others doing similar work, while also joining with the broader movement to build power and push for major policy change.

Community development professionals can connect with longstanding colleagues and expand their professional networks

Private sector leaders from foundations, financial institutions, small businesses, real estate firms, and others can re-connect with colleagues, get to know more CDCs and community development professionals, and demonstrate support for the CDC field.

MACDC Alumni, including former board members, staff, and interns, can rejoin the movement and see the results of their hard work at MACDC.

An opportunity to pay it forward

Of course, none of this happens without you and others making the trip to Worcester or joining us on-line. The magic of the convention is the scale and diversity of who is there.  Your presence will make the networking and relationship building more impactful for everyone who attends.  Your presence will help us honor our award winners and give meaning to the 40^th anniversary celebration.  Your presence will help us build momentum for our racial equity work. Your presence will help drive our policy agenda and make a powerful impression on the next Governor.  Your presence will demonstrate the collective power of United Communities, Building Together.

We look forward to seeing you!

On August 10th, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) published the final guidelines to determine compliance with section 3A of the Zoning Act—the new requirement for every MBTA community to have at least one zoning district in which multi-family housing is allowed as of right, and which is located near a transit station, if applicable. 

The final guidelines incorporated changes from the draft guidelines, in response to extensive stakeholder comments, outlined in a letter to local officials.

EOHED is holding a webinar on September 8th at 1 p.m. to go over the guidelines; if you go to the guidelines page, and scroll down toward the bottom, you can register for the webinar.  

Despite the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, and significant increases in construction and other costs, project sponsors continue to develop much-needed affordable housing, with the ongoing support of the MA Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). On July 26th, in Falmouth, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, DHCD Undersecretary Jennifer Maddox, and local officials announced awards for 26 affordable housing developments, which collectively will create or preserve 1,474 rental homes, with 1,326 of these being affordable. 

Eight of the projects were sponsored, or co-sponsored, by MACDC’s Members.  Collectively they compose 368 units, with 316 of these being affordable. They include the following: 

• Anchor Point II in Beverly, sponsored by Harborlight Community Partners, is the second phase of a new construction project for families. It will offer 39 apartments, all affordable. Construction is well underway on the adjacent Anchor Point I project. 
• Carol Avenue Rehab is an existing family housing project located in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. Sponsored by Allston-Brighton CDC, the project will feature 33 fully rehabilitated units, including 25 affordable units. 
• In Nubian Square in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, Nuestra Comunidad, in partnership with Windale Developers, will newly construct Bartlett Station V.  When completed, the project, which will be built to Passive House standards, will offer 44 total units, including 33 affordable units. 
• Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) will newly construct Aileron in East Boston, which will provide 36 units, all affordable. 
• 2085 Washington Street is a new construction, mixed-income project located in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. Madison Park Development Corporation, in partnership with Trinity Financial, is sponsoring the project, which will be built to Passive House standards, and will provide 64 rental units, 44 of them affordable. 
• Lincoln School, in Brockton, is an historic adaptive re-use project, sponsored by NeighborWorks Housing Solutions. When completed, the project will offer 37 total units for seniors, all affordable. 
• Just A Start will newly construct 52 New Street in Cambridge. The project, which will be built to Passive House standards will provide 107 units, including 97 affordable units. 
• Hillman Firehouse Restoration in New Bedford is a historic adaptive re-use project, sponsored by Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE (WHALE).  When construction is completed, the project will offer eight total units, including 5 affordable units. 

On July 19th in Worcester, Lt. Governor Polito was joined by senior Administration officials and Worcester’s Mayor and Acting City Manager to announce Permanent Supportive Housing awards. The awards went to 11 projects, which collectively will provide 237 permanent housing units and 200 shelter beds for families and individuals. 

The MA Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), working with the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), awarded more than $31 million in direct subsidies, tax credits, and housing vouchers. 

Among the 11 projects awarded funding, 6 are sponsored by MACDC Members.  They include: 

• NeighborWorks Housing Solutions, in partnership with Father Bills & Mainspring, is developing 150 Pleasant Street in Attleboro, which will create 22 new supportive housing units and 18 emergency shelter beds. 
• In creating Warren Street Housing, Commonwealth Land Trust will rehabilitate 26 single-room occupancy (SRO) units in 2 buildings, in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. 
• 35 Harvey Street in Cambridge is an occupied rehabilitation project, sponsored by Homeowners Rehab Inc., which will provide 12 SRO units with individuals bathrooms and kitchenettes. 
• Harborlight Community Partners, working with The Haven Project, will construct Catalyst Housing in Lynn, an historic re-use that will provide 24 studio units. 
• New Point Apartments is an 18-unit historic preservation project in Salem, sponsored by North Shore CDC. 
• Home City Development will newly construct 275 Chestnut Supportive Housing at the site of the former YMCA building in Springfield, providing 29 SRO units. 

The Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), on Wednesday, August 10^th, released its 2022 GOALs Report, which reflects data collected from calendar year 2021. The report shows that, in 2021, CDCs in Massachusetts collectively invested $1.453 Billion in local communities – the largest annual investment made by CDCs in their history.

The MACDC GOALs Report, first launched in 2002, is the most comprehensive tracking of CDC performance in the Commonwealth. It measures performance across six areas of community development: 1) resident leaders engaged; 2) homes built or preserved; 3) job opportunities created or preserved; 4) entrepreneurs supported; 5) families supported; and 6) funds invested in communities through CDCs.

In 2021, as communities continued to recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, CDCs played an essential role in community resilience, and in efforts to redress and reduce- and make progress toward eliminating- unjust disparities in the pandemic’s impacts.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that these impacts are greater than in 2020. However, in comparing the collective impact of CDCs in 2021 to 2019, pre-COVID, CDC contributions to community resilience jump off the page!

• 1,717 homes were created or preserved, 11% more than in 2019
• 6,744 jobs were created or preserved, a 62% increase from 2019
• 3,416 entrepreneurs were provided technical or financial assistance, almost 3 times the 1,256 entrepreneurs provided such assistance in 2019
• 86,124 families were served, 23% more than in 2019
• $1.45 billion was invested, a 58% increase from 2019.

MACDC would like to thank our member CDCs for participating in the GOALs Survey, and recognize them for the amazing work they continue to do in their communities year over year. We would also like to thank the Massachusetts Housing Partnership for supporting the MACDC GOALs Initiative.

Read the full report.

For MACDC and our members, we ended the legislative session feeling accomplished about numerous wins in the state operating budget including, level funding of $7M for Small Business Technical Assistance, over $30M in grants to small businesses, and $15M for the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment grant program. However, in a disappointing turn of events the session ended with the Legislature neglecting to finalize the Economic Development Bill. For MACDC, this meant leaving over $400M for affordable housing and over $75M to BIPOC small businesses unfinished. We hope that the legislature will address these critical issues during informal sessions this fall. 

Throughout the session MACDC also advocated and organized around numerous policy initiatives that would help to create healthier homes across the Commonwealth, increase dedicated funding for affordable housing and climate change, provide tenants an opportunity to purchase their homes, and decarbonize existing buildings. Although progress was made building support for these programs and educating leaders about their importance, in the end the following pieces of legislation did not pass this session:  

• Massachusetts Healthy Homes Initiative (MHHI)  
• Housing and Environment Revenue Opportunity (HERO) Act  
• Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)  
• Zero Carbon Renovation Fund   

As we work on our planning this fall for the upcoming 2023/2024 legislative session, the continuation of these campaigns will remain top of mind.  

Last November, MACDC launched its Racial Equity Pledge as a membership-wide initiative to disrupt systems within the community development field that produce or sustain racial inequity. Our goal is to provide a roadmap for MACDC members to identify and commit to actionable steps toward racial equity within the specific context of their organization and community.  Today, I’m proud to report that 30 of our members have joined with MACDC in adopting the pledge and doing the hard work of making it real. 

I have been impressed that our members are engaging the process with such seriousness and thoughtfulness (read some of their stories in this blog series: Harborlight Community Partners, Community Development Partnership, Somerville Community Corporation and Codman Sqaure NDC). Honestly, I was afraid that some CDCs might quickly and casually sign a pledge simply out of generalized support for the goals without necessarily having a commitment to make changes within their organizations. But that has not happened. Not at all. We have learned that many of our members were already deep into a process of internal reflection, planning, and change. Others are using the pledge as a needed impetus to take more concrete steps. We heard early on that our insistence that the full Board of Directors vote to adopt the pledge has prompted meaningful discussions at the board level, discussions that in many cases were long overdue.  We also heard that the existence of the pledge was helpful in moving reluctant or hesitant board members to action and communicating to everyone that racial equity is central to the work of community development. 

One challenge that CDC leaders (and frankly leaders of all organizations) have in confronting these issues is where to start. There are so many ways in which racial inequity, discrimination, bias, and structural racism impact our organizations and our communities that it can be overwhelming – even more so because these issues are often intertwined and mutually reinforcing. The Racial Equity Pledge tries to help by emphasizing the four levels of racism – internalized racism within individuals, interpersonal racism that occurs between individuals, institutional racism with our institutions and systems of power, and structural racism across our society. Understanding these levels – both their differences and their connections – can help groups decide where to start their journey. 

Leaders also must overcome the fear that embarking on this path will create discomfort, disagreements and tensions that might disrupt day-to-day operations, cause staff turnover or otherwise make things more difficult to manage. How do we find the “stretch zone” while avoiding the “panic zone”?  I’ll acknowledge that I have had those concerns myself. Even those who know the issues must be confronted may worry that doing so could make things worse if they are done poorly.  

In my experience, two steps are critical to creating the space and culture to engage this work effectively: shared education and relationship building. The Pledge recommends that organizations start with understanding the root causes of racism and racial inequities. Indeed, for years, MACDC has required all staff to attend racial equity training during their first year.  This is the reason we also decided in 2018 to participate in a YW sponsored program where our entire board and staff attended a series of five training sessions where we explored issues of racial equity both within our organizational culture and in our field.  While many of the board and staff had attended other trainings before, we believed it was important that we engage in this learning together in the specific context of MACDC. This ensures that we have some shared language and frameworks. Seeing each other engage in this learning builds credibility and mutual accountability. We know that when people from different backgrounds come together to discuss these issues, it is critical that participants feel like their colleagues have some basic and shared understanding about the history and context. While none of us can fully understand someone else’s lived experience, we can build trust by demonstrating that we are interested in that experience, that we are educating ourselves and listening. And this goes to the other core ingredient to effective racial equity work within organizations – relationship building. This work will be more effective when we know each other beyond our titles and physical identities – when we know each other’s stories and families and histories. Indeed, this was part of the YW program and part of what we try to do on an on-going basis both within our staff and our board.  

The commitment to education and relationship building has also been critical for me in my role as an executive director of a community development organization. It has helped to teach me (and frequently remind me when I forget) that effective leadership recognizes that good ideas come from many different places. Sometimes leadership requires following others. The Racial Equity Pledge was not my idea. The program of support that we are implementing is not my handiwork. I’d like to think that I contributed to the process, but this has been led by our members and our staff.   

I recognize that this type of leadership is particularly important for me as a white male leading an organization dedicated to racial equity.  I must continually ask myself when my leadership and my voice is essential to demonstrate our organization’s commitment to this work? When is my leadership and voice an obstacle to progress because I am taking up space from other, newer voices whose time has come?  When do I lean in and when do I step back?   

I have been struggling with these questions for the past two years and I expect that I and others will continue to struggle. I’m grateful to be in a relationship with so many other nonprofit leaders in our network who must deal with the same or similar questions. I’m lucky to have colleagues who are often unafraid to tell me what they think!  I invite you help me by giving me feedback and letting me know when it’s time for me to speak up and when it’s time to shut up.  Let me know when I make the right call and don’t hesitate when you think I have made the wrong one. When it comes to racial equity work, I, like all of us, am still learning.