After nearly two decades of proceeding in fits and starts, the Needham Housing Authority’s redevelopment and expansion plan for its Linden Chambers property has received a $41 million infusion of state funds. This is expected to allow the NHA to break ground on the project in early 2027.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll came to the Linden site on Sept. 3 to announce the major award from the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. It’s a complex funding stack made up of $21.37 million in federal and state low-income housing tax credits, a $12.54 million grant and $7 million in loans.
It will complement $22 million from other sources, including town Community Preservation Act grants. Local sources account for 10.4% of the project’s overall funding total of $64,864,871.
The NHA can now begin work that has been contemplated since at least 2007, when upgrades and expansion of Linden Chambers were seen as central to the town’s Affordable Housing Plan.
Driscoll noted affordable housing projects require multiple levels of government support and credited Needham for stepping up. In addition to Town Meeting voting nearly unanimously to provide almost $7 million in CPA funds, the town made the necessary zoning changes and also waived permitting fees to facilitate the project.
“Sometimes it takes all of us to make projects like this happen — perhaps the only way. And that’s probably why we haven’t built enough housing in the last three decades, because it’s not easy,” Driscoll said, referring to an estimate that Massachusetts has nearly 250,000 fewer homes than needed.
The effort to secure funding for a range of upgrades across the NHA system has been led by Reg Foster, the longtime chair of the NHA Board of Commissioners. Foster was appointed to the NHA in 2010 and almost immediately began the effort to address the authority’s infrastructure issues.
The plans went through several iterations and the NHA also cycled through multiple executive directors before settling in 2021 on its Preservation and Redevelopment Initiative to guide the effort. That PRI was generally followed, though it required numerous adaptations due to shifting regulatory structures during the extensive pre-development process.
The NHA made a major decision in September 2024 with the selection of AHSC Peabody as its development partner before it submitted its initial application to the state for project funding. This put the NHA in competition for funding that had been greatly enhanced by the state’s passage of the 2024 Affordable Homes Act.
The AHA established bonding authority for more than $5 billion in state spending on housing programs, including roughly $2 billion for modernization of Massachusetts’ state-aided public housing.
The NHA did not make the cut during that initial 2025 funding cycle, but it was subsequently able to enhance its application. Last week, it succeeded in receiving a healthy portion of the $278 million in state and federal financing and tax credits awarded to 20 communities for housing development across Massachusetts.
That is why Driscoll was present at the Linden community room to announce the funding award, which she said was greatly influenced by financial support and other commitments by the town.
“The bulk of our state-owned housing is serving older adults. And it was all built in the fifties and sixties,” she said of the significance of announcing the award at a public housing property.
“These buildings don’t owe us anything anymore. Many of them are not handicapped accessible. They lack some of the modern amenities.”
“We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can, not just admire the problem. We are done admiring the problem,” Driscoll said of the state effort to add housing across the state and in all formats — single-family homes, duplexes, condos, apartments, ADUs and others.
She noted housing plans often face local resistance.
“It is hard. We have to find a way to capture hearts and minds, to find the right locations, and then to work like all of you have done here in Needham to put the gas pedal down and say, ‘Where can we build the housing we need?’”
Foster also noted the support provided at the state level by Needham’s now retired state Rep. Denise Garlick, who he described as “one of the true angels of this project.” Garlick helped secure a $1.25 million state grant derived from the federal ARPA program and also helped shepherd the NHA application through the state process.
Garlick, in turn, praised Foster for his dogged work over more than a decade, calling him “my hero in this effort.”
“He could see what was possible long before we had the resources or the certainty to know that we would get here,” she said. “Through every trial and tribulation, every delay and every obstacle, Reggie kept his eye on the prize.”
Tenant relocation is job one
The overall Linden Chambers project will be done in three phases and will not begin until the NHA is able to find temporary housing for all current tenants, all of whom are eligible to receive relocation assistance and have the right to return once construction is completed. The NHA has scheduled a meeting with tenants for this week to discuss the relocation process and other aspects of the project.
Once the tenants have been relocated, Phase 1A will begin with the demolition of 10 of the 18 Linden buildings which currently provide four studio apartments each or 40 units. They will be replaced by the first portion of a four-story apartment building, with the initial 76 units possibly being available by late 2028.
Phase 1A is estimated to cost $64 million. It will be followed by Phase 1B, during which the eight remaining buildings and 32 units will be replaced by 60 new units in the completed four-story building. The combined 136 new units will be one-bedroom. It is expected to bring the total project cost north of $80 million.
The NHA then hopes to have financing in place to undertake Phase 2, the replacement of the 80 studio units in the five Chambers buildings with 111 new units
The 18 Linden buildings were constructed between 1959 and 1964. The five Chambers buildings were completed in 1972. The properties were evaluated and determined to be worn out and not appropriate candidates for a rehab project.
The units are around 400 square feet on average, not ADA compliant, plagued by mold and other symptoms of advanced age and insufficient investment. They are generally not suitable for the NHA tenant mix of seniors and individuals with disabilities.
AHSC Peabody, the NHA’s development partner, was brought in to navigate the funding process, provide construction oversight and offer other skills that the NHA does not possess. It is a partnership between a nonprofit, the Affordable Housing and Services Collaborative, and The Peabody Companies, a privately owned for-profit real-estate/property-management and development company.
They have collaborated on nearly two dozen projects and will remain involved with property management after construction is complete. On its website, Peabody Companies states it manages more than 15,700 units overall, including apartments, condominiums, senior housing and veteran housing.
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