Recap: Community Development and Preserving Naturally-Occurring Affordable Housing

On December 18, 2025, the Boston Foundation hosted a forum in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) to address one of the most pressing challenges in Massachusetts: preserving housing affordability amid escalating market pressures. The event marked the release of MACDC’s report, Here Today, Here Tomorrow: CDC Acquisition of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, and featured a panel of leaders from local CDCs who shared insights, strategies, and hard-earned lessons from the field.

Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) refers to unsubsidized, unregulated housing that remains relatively affordable to low-income households. As Don Bianchi, Director of Housing at MACDC, explained, “Massachusetts has a housing supply shortage and a housing affordability crisis… The state lost more than 160,000 low-rent units in the 10-year period ending in 2022.” Two-thirds of low-income households rely on the private market for housing, making NOAH preservation critical. Without intervention, speculative investors often acquire these properties, raise rents, and displace long-term residents—particularly BIPOC households, who are disproportionately rent-burdened.

Panelists agreed that focusing solely on new development is insufficient. Lydia Lowe, Executive Director of Chinatown Community Land Trust, illustrated the stakes: “If we only focus on new development… we can’t be like filling a bath with an open drain where we’re letting all of the existing housing drain away.” In neighborhoods like Chinatown, where land is scarce and luxury development pressures are intense, preserving existing housing is essential to maintaining cultural and historic continuity.

Tenant organizing emerged as a cornerstone of successful acquisitions. Lowe emphasized, “Community organizing has been the key to our ability to acquire properties… encouraging tenants who are given a notice to quit to remain in place and know they don’t have to move.” Christine Vincenti, Director of Portfolio Management at Harborlight Homes, described a contrasting scenario in Lynn: “We had a landlord that for 40 years kept rents really low… tenants trusted the landlord, and that trust helped us engage them in conversations about preservation.” Steve Laferriere of The Neighborhood Developers highlighted partnerships: “We don’t do tenant organizing ourselves, but we work with nonprofit partners who do… and once we purchase, our resident services team builds relationships with residents.”

While Boston’s Acquisition Opportunity Program provides critical support, similar resources are lacking statewide. Vincenti explained why Harborlight ultimately walked away from a Lynn acquisition: “We wound up putting together about 14 sources of financing… but the guarantee risk was huge. We didn’t want to be in a position where five years from now we’d have to sell at market just to keep our organization solvent.” Bianchi called for systemic solutions: “We need to scale up public funding if we are to scale up NOAH acquisitions… and enact policies like Tenant Opportunity to Purchase legislation to remove properties from the speculative market.” Panelists also discussed creative strategies such as tax abatements, city voucher programs, and ground leases to ensure permanent affordability.