HCA Newsletter

BIG NEWS!

HCA has acquired the rental properties at 840-846 Mass Ave and 17 Newman Way! These are the two brick buildings across from Arlington High School and the CVS, and a 2-family home behind them on Newman Way. Tenants there asked HCA to purchase their buildings after facing rent increases. After extensive work to secure funding and prepare to assume management of the properties, we made it happen! Peabody Properties is our partner in managing the properties. We have started introducing ourselves to tenants and are excited to welcome them into the HCA community.

HCA is thankful for support from the Town Manager, Select Board, and the Arlington Housing Trust. The Arlington Housing Trust awarded the project a vital loan. The Town awarded a significant ARPA grant, and a grant from the state’s MBTA Communities Catalyst Fund (secured by the Town’s Planning and Community Development staff, and passed on to HCA). This acquisition qualified for the MBTA Communities Catalyst Fund (a program of the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities) because the properties are within Arlington’s new MBTA Communities multi-family zoning overlay. HCA is now developing a plan to build additional affordable homes on the site under that zoning.

In addition to those essential awards, Town Manager Jim Feeney and the Planning and Community Development Department, including Director Claire Ricker and Deputy Director Sarah Suarez, all helped to strategize on how to raise necessary funds.  Our state delegation — Representatives Sean Garballey and Dave Rogers, and State Senator Cindy Friedman — and their staff also helped HCA pursue funds. Colleagues at other community development corporations and nonprofit housing developers gave us advice on how to make this deal work. It really does take a village!

In the end, we were able to secure the financing needed to acquire the homes and operate them responsibly. HCA is also grateful to our many other lenders and subsidy partners: Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, The Life Initiative, The Boston Foundation, Boston Impact Initiative, Eastern Bank Foundation, and the sellers, Torrington Properties, who extended a seller loan. HCA also invested funds from the sale of our 225 Broadway 2-family property, which suffered a serious fire in December 2024.

The tenants at the properties deserve special recognition. After facing rent hikes, many of them started organizing with help from City Life Vida Urbana and Community Organizer Steve Meacham. They also received assistance from the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Over the last couple years they have joined HCA’s Walk for Affordable Housing as they worked to publicize their cause. After considering what they wanted for their homes, they asked HCA to buy the properties to preserve them as affordable housing — a request that inspired our work to put this deal together.

We will celebrate heartily with the tenants — and hopefully also with you — at the Annual Meeting on October 9th! See details above and mark your calendar!