Longtime Newton Affordable Housing Advocate Honored

NEWTON, MA — Newton affordable housing advocate Josephine McNeil was honored Thursday. She co-founded Citizens for Affordable Housing in Newton Development Organization or CAN-DO. The organization is a non-profit developer of affordable housing for low and moderate-income families. Aside from 40Bs it's the only developer of affordable housing in Newton, and McNeil has championed for providing affordable housing for extremely low income residents for decades here.

McNeil co-founded the organization in 1994, and worked there until she retired in 2017. In honor of her work, the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce awarded McNeil the R.L. Tennant Award. Past recipients include former Mayor Setti Warren.

"By honoring me today the chamber is sending a message," she said. "You are saying Newton businesses ... are being negatively affected by the lack of affordable housing and there is a need for affordable housing. "

McNeil attended Vassar and then came to the area to attend law school at Boston College. In 1992 she left her job at a major law firm. She became a project manger for an affordable housing developer and eventually formed her own affordable house and economic development firm before co-founding CAN-DO.

At CAN-DO, the organization developed has created 44 units, 37 of which are deed-restricted permanent affordable housing for very low and extremely low-income families. She serves on boards of several local, state and national legal and housing nonprofit organizations. She's on the Newton Housing Partnership, she currently serves on the City of Newton's Fair Housing Committee and is the co-chair of U-CHAN, a local housing advocacy organization with a mission to educate Newton residents about housing issues broadly.

Business owners have told the chamber that among the top issues they face in their businesses it's finding and retaining workers, and much of that is because of a lack of affordable housing for that workforce.

Many, they say, can’t afford to live where they work, especially in the food services and hospitality industries.

“We are going through a horrible situation in this country,” McNeil said at the Chamber breakfast after her award. “So many people especially families with children with no place to live, in Massachusetts we have 3,000 families, living in Children. That speaks to - frankly the future of the country. It means those kids are not getting good educations.”

The need is real in Newton, too. Some 1,300 people live in Newton Housing Authority homes. And many more are hoping looking for affordable places to live in town. The family public housing waiting list is about seven to 10 years long for standard applicants and about two to five for emergency cases, according to the Housing Authority. Programs for senior and disabled can take up to five years to get into.

Chamber President Greg Reibman said this means the city and businesses have a lot of work to do when it comes to advocating for things like affordable housing. He asked those gathered to indicate their support to pass the governor's Housing Choice Bill. The bill would make it easier to rewrite zoning laws to create more housing.

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).