Special to the Times-Free Press

As 2025 comes to a close, we are grateful for so many important projects and programs. Among them, we have worked with the City, the Commonwealth, Rockland Trust and the BHA to preserve 110 units of affordable rental housing in 29 buildings. Eighteen of these buildings, purchased with City support to prevent tenant displacement, were on the cusp of foreclosure until this team stepped up and provided financial products to stave off this demanding threat. This is a very complex transaction in which NOAH had invested $2.4M of our own funds over 6 years to pay debt service to help cover rents and pay lenders their mortgages. If this team had not worked together over recent months, these properties would very likely have been sold to investors who would have displaced the residents and turned them into condominiums; and, NOAH would have lost millions of dollars. In 2026, $2M in rehab will help upgrade these older three-deckers. Rep Madaro and Councilor Coletta made it abundantly clear the past two years that the community could not afford to lose these at-risk properties and families. Preservation is significantly less expensive than building new housing and it is much faster as well.

Mayor Michelle Wu and our collaborative and effective East Boston delegation, Rep Adrian Madaro, Councilor Gabriela Coletta-Zapata, and Senator Lydia Edwards, were present at NOAH’s Annual Dinner to share a great Spinelli’s meal with over 220 guests and acknowledge the hard work it took over the years to preserve these vulnerable units. The Mayor’s housing team also awarded funds to help seven families become first time homebuyers at NOAH’s Aileron project on Condor St. City funds were matched by the Commonwealth Builders Program operated by Chrystal Kornegay who leads Mass Housing. We are hopeful that in 2027, we will be able to build 36 more rental units next door to the homeownership units but we will need more money from the City and the State to make that happen. We are grateful to Senator Edwards who has been one of the leading voices in the entire Commonwealth for housing for all persons, particularly those with modest incomes.

We are also grateful for several other programs on which Mayor Wu’s administration is deeply involved. Her Air Pollution Control Commission awarded NOAH a $186,000 grant to place sensors around East Boston. Our youth team will also make air filters to place in people’s homes, many of whom have asthma. Several non-profits are working collaboratively on air quality issues including Maverick Landing Community Services, Greenroots, the Logan Air Coalition and Mothers Out Front. We are backed up by Northeastern University and Olin College who document the science and will help us create useful information so public authorities can make informed decisions about how to make air cleaner in and around East Boston. NOAH’s environmental youth team will be presenting information to East Boston’s Neighborhood Associations in 2026. We will also be working closely with Rep Madaro who has filed legislation to place more sensors throughout the neighborhood.

Lastly, the Mayor and Councilor Coletta noted that NOAH is working with many local agencies, Neighborhealth and the City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on an Emergency Preparedness network. Should a major climate event or other ‘disaster’ occur in East Boston, we should be prepared to work together on well-known plans to protect the public welfare. This will require a defined communication plan in a variety of languages. Families of all backgrounds, small businesses, schools, agencies, have to work together with First Responders to minimize damage, preserve property, keep transportation open, and get back on their feet as soon as possible. There will more information and public participation in 2026 so that the City and community, working together, can call a summit or convening. Reach Dennis Sullivan (dsull01@gmail.com) or Phil Giffee (pgiffee@noahcdc.org) for more information.