HCA Newsletter

Share Your Support for Emma’s Court:

HCA’s next Affordable Housing Development!

Renderings provided by Utile Architects. Upper image: 6-story 28-unit building with first floor office space along Mass Ave. Lower image: 3-story 12-unit building at 17 Newman Way.

HCA plans to build 40 highly energy-efficient affordable apartments at the properties we own at 840 Mass Ave and 17 Newman Way, in a development called Emma’s Court!

Emma’s Court includes two buildings: one on the large lawn in front at 840 Mass Ave and another in the place of the 2-family home that is now at 17 Newman Way.  HCA has been in communication with existing tenants, and will coordinate and fully pay for the relocation of the two Newman Way households, perhaps into other HCA units. In addition to sorely needed affordable housing, this development will include a large interior courtyard with native plants, a commercial office space facing Mass Ave, and new landscaping along Mass Ave.

HCA Is now seeking zoning for Emma’s Court.

There are 2 ways you can help:

1) Attend the first zoning hearing with the Arlington Redevelopment Board (ARB) on Monday January 26th, in person at the Arlington Community Center, 27 Maple Street.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 pm. Our item may not come up until after 8:00 pm. At that time, HCA and our architects will present to the ARB, followed by public comment. We will send a follow up email once the ARB has finalized its agenda and the timing of our item that night is better known.

You can attend and speak — sharing comments in person makes a real impact.

Or, you can attend and not speak — we can give you a sticker to wear to show your support!

2) Submit written comments in support of Emma’s Court

You can also send written comments by email to the Arlington Redevelopment Board. Your comments will become part of the public record for the project’s zoning request.

Email Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development Sarah Suarez, and the members of the ARB: Chair Rachel Zsembery, Vice Chair Kin Lau, and Eugene Bensen, Shaina Korman-Houston, and Steve Revilak:

Sssuarez@town.arlington.ma.us

Rzsembery@town.arlington.ma.us

KLau@town.arlington.ma.us

Ebensen@town.arlington.ma.us

Skorman-housing@town.arlington.ma.us

Srevilak@town.arlington.ma.us

Please also copy: eschwarz@housingcorparlington.org

It may be useful to mention some of the project’s features that you particularly like, but the ARB members will have all of the details. You do not have to be an expert on the project to provide important comments. You only have to care about what you’re saying. You should them know that you support the project, and ideally, also why.

Highlights of Emma’s Court:

• 40 affordable homes serving a range of low-income households (those at or below 30%, 50% or 60% AMI)

• 26 of the units have 2 or 3 bedrooms; the rest have 1 bedroom

• Walkable, transit-oriented development on or steps from multiple bus routes

• Built to very high energy-efficiency standards

• High quality buildings with designs that suit the scale of the neighborhood: larger density on Mass Ave and a three-story building on Newman Way

• Large inner courtyard for tenants with native plantings and seating

• Ground floor commercial office space on Mass Ave

• New pathways through the site to connect directly to existing crosswalk

• Significant support and funding from state and from the Town of Arlington to acquire the property and enable new affordable housing to be built

Learn more about the project at our website — including the history of the site and why this project is called Emma’s Court!

Inner courtyard, looking towards Mass Ave. Rendering provided by Utile Architects

In the 1980’s many Arlington residents were worried about housing. Rents and home prices were rising. Local families were facing displacement. A few folks started pushing the Town to do more. A task force was formed in very early 1986 to study the issue…and by fall of that year they had approval from the Town to form a new group: the Housing Corporation of Arlington!

 

Next month we will share much more about the ups and downs of the early days of HCA…it wasn’t easy to get the work started! This month, one of HCA’s earliest Board members shares her memories of our very first affordable housing development in 2001.

HCA’s first acquisition — the 2-family that started it all

by Laura Wiener

In fall of 2000 I became the first Director of Housing for the Town of Arlington. By that time I had been on the Board of HCA for as long as I lived in Arlington, since 1987.

I was lucky when I started my new job because two very committed public servants had been putting money aside for affordable housing for a couple of years — Alan McClennen, Director of Planning and Community Development (and my new boss) and Select Board member Charlie Lyons. Each year for 3 years they had allocated $100,000 from the federal Community Development Block Grant program for affordable housing, even though they weren’t sure how it would get spent.

I had a little bit of experience working with a non-profit in Watertown that had purchased a 2-family for affordable housing.  So I felt like that was the easiest way to get started.

Alan and Charlie, and also Patsy Kraemer, Director of Health and Human Services at the time, and Bob Murray, a former Select Board member all really wanted to get some affordable housing off the ground.  HCA was still a young organization at that time — only 4 years old — and had not developed any housing yet, despite real effort.  But we all felt that HCA was the logical purchaser, since it was an independent non-profit established by the Town to create affordable housing.

I worked with a broker, looking at 2-families, and most everything was at least $400,000, which was very expensive at the time. Then I saw a property for just under $300,000.  It was small, but in good condition and with a big backyard. I remember calling Alan on a Saturday and telling him about it, and he said, “Do it”! And I did! That modest 2-family house on Smith Street with the large yard became the home for 2 single mom households, each with one child.  One of those women continues to live there today. It felt so good to jump in and start, and to help two families who were truly in danger of being pushed out of Arlington, if not worse.

That was just the start of HCA eventually buying 15 2-family homes for Arlington families! Over time, HCA transitioned to acquiring or building larger properties that could help more families as the housing crisis continued to worsen.

As we celebrate our 40^th anniversary year, we honor that house on Smith Street, the first in a growing portfolio of protected, restricted, stable affordable homes for Arlington families.

^{You can read all of the stories that we will share over the course of this year on our 40th Anniversary webpage.}

Do you have a memory about HCA? If you have a story you’d like to share as we celebrate this 40th anniversary year — from anytime between HCA’s founding in 1986 to last week — let us know!

Email Erica at eschwarz@housingcorparlington.org

HCA Partnered to Provide Holiday Meals

This past holiday season, HCA was proud to help provide over 300 Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for Arlington community members. These meals helped ensure that families could gather, celebrate, and enjoy nourishing food during a time of year that can be especially challenging for many.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Apex Defense Academy, who provided the meal baskets for Thanksgiving, and to Temple Isaiah and Temple Shir Tikvah and their Project Ezra program, for sponsoring and delivering meals on Christmas Eve to those who signed up with HCA.

Their partnership and commitment to community helped make the holidays brighter for so many of our neighbors. We are deeply grateful for their support and for everyone who helped make these drives a success.

10 Sunnyside Ave Construction

Construction at 10 Sunnyside Ave continues to go well!  Demolition is done, shoring is installed, and preparation work has started for the installation of the ductile iron piles that will support the foundation. The photo here is from early January, before the pile work started.

We will continue to update our project page as the work progresses!

And we are very close to setting a date for a celebration of the construction, which will be in March. You will be invited!