Lynn housing agency changes title, expands its regional reach

LYNN – The name has changed but the job remains the same, only on a larger scale.After 30 years as a spearhead of affordable local housing development, the Lynn Community Development Housing Corp. (LCDHC) is adopting the moniker Neighborhood Development Associates (NDA).Effective today, the change reflects the agency’s effort to branch out to other communities with its resources and initiatives.”Over the past 30 years, the Lynn Community Development Housing Corporation has grown significantly,” said LCDHC President Charles Gaeta. “The corporation has been successful in countless initiatives in the city of Lynn and has contributed to many positive enhancements in the city’s housing market. However, to better reflect its updated mission, enhanced responsibilities, and to more closely reflect the wide scope of work the corporation undertakes, the organization will formally change its name to Neighborhood Development Associates, Inc.”Gaeta said the new name encompasses the goals outlined in the organization’s mission statement. Among them: seek opportunities to meet the needs of low- to moderate-income residents of Lynn as well as the surrounding communities.The mission is about creating neighborhoods of choice through a comprehensive approach toward development and revitalization. Quality, affordability, and sustainability are the standard values.According to Gaeta, NDA strives to better lives by increasing economic empowerment and self sufficiency, and by creating homeownership, rental and economic opportunities for people with low to moderate incomes.Looking back at its roots, Edward Calnan, the LCDHC’s first Executive Board president and corporation founder, recalled that “the many vacant lots in the city were having a negative effect on our neighborhoods, and at the time, 30 years ago, these lots weren’t marketable to private developers.”The corporation began building houses on vacant lots and offering them for sale to first-time homebuyers at affordable rates. The result: neighborhoods in Lynn’s urban core were stabilized and enhanced.Part of that home-building strategy was known as the in-fill program because the structures literally filled in the vacant lots. It was also a crime-fighting tool. After all, rundown neighborhoods characterized by weed-strewn lots and dilapidated apartment buildings fostered an environment of blight, crime and high residential turnover.”With a concentrated focus on bettering Lynn’s urban core, the LCDHC has effectively reduced population density, improved housing conditions, and reinforced housing stability,” Gaeta said.To ensure the process was successful, LCDHC worked closely with its administrative agency, the Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development (LHAND), where Gaeta is executive director. It also sought support from elected and appointed city officials, and local organizations and businesses.”Once an area is selected, a careful needs assessment of the neighborhood is conducted by working closely with neighbors to identify the underlying issues in the area,” said Gaeta, noting that the LCDHC “does not operate as a Band-Aid corporation, but strives to understand and tackle the root of problems in targeted neighborhoods.”Whenever possible, the LCDHC has used local businesses and services in its development initiatives as part of its commitment to the local economy.Perhaps the largest and most effective strategy has been total neighborhood enhancement. Rather than simply constructing houses on vacant lots, or erecting apartment buildings or condominiums, development plans have dove-tailed with improvements to roads, sidewalks and curbs, as well as adding green space and parking.”Many of the targeted areas in the city’s urban core lacked green space and trees,” said Gaeta, explaining that the Add-a-Yard Program marked one effort to address those conditions.Evidence of LCDHC’s positive influence on the city’s urban core can be found in many quarters, from Buffum Estates on Herbert