News and Accomplishments
March 17, 2024 Lynne launches her campaign
- 5/5/2024 Hall Pond Hall Spring Community Day clean up and planting. Many hands made light work. Lynne will “dig in” and work just as hard for the Brookline Housing Authority.
- Since there were no forums for Housing Authority Candidates, we want to express our gratitude to the organization that did reach out to learn about Lynne. Please check out Lynne’s written responses to questions from:
- Massachusetts Alliance for Supportive Housing. Lynne attended the kick off event of the Permanent Supportive Housing Learning Forum on 4/9/2024 and will be attending weekly learning sessions through the summer.
- To mark National Fair Housing Month, I am sharing this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWU-e8RgXes
- A huge shout out to Tommy Vitolo our esteemed state representative for holding his amazing annual candidates social today! I met many town meeting members, former BHA classmates and other members of the community and listened to their concerns. I have attached a my 2 minute speech from Tommy’s social.
- Lynne hosts panel 3/22/2023 for CREW Boston’s Housing and Community Development Committee’s Virtual Brown Bag Lunch on “Affordable Housing Funding: We All Need It. Where to Find It”.
- Consultant to Harvard University. Lynne has worked with Harvard Real Estate and Harvard Allston Land Company for the past year and a half to help them choose a developer to give away one acre of land for home ownership development with the highest level of affordability possible. The choice was made in December and an announcement of the winning development team will be forthcoming.
- Asset Manager/Operational management skills. Lynne worked for an investor of approximately 30 assisting living facilities in New England and the Mid-Atlantic when assisted living was in its infancy in 2000. LDS created systems to review both operational and financial procedures. We visited facilities annually to assess their physical condition and sat down with residents and ate meals with them to understand their concerns. We reviewed monthly financials, occupancy and staffing reports and approved annual capital budgets. We left those properties and residents better off than when we started, and the investments were sold at a high profit.
- Gateway City Downtown Planning. Lynne has been working under a HUB grant in Holyoke to help bring housing to its downtown.
- My firm has created a financing toolkit for building owners. We found that even with the tool kit, the alphabet soup of affordable housing was overwhelming to building owners. Therefore, we have expanded our work to sit beside downtown business owners to create business plans for creating housing on their vacant upper floors including running financial pro-formas, helping with contractor recommendations, budgeting, and writing grant applications.
- Wrote and awarded a grant for Neighborhood Stabilization Funds which was funded in the amount $1,863,191 by the Healey Driscoll administration for 147 High Street (19 affordable units)
- Wrote and awarded a grant in the amount of $350,000 under the Gateway Funding Rehabilitation Program for 113-115 High Street (4 affordable units)
- Expert Witness Precedent Setting: Lynne was an expert witness on a housing appeals committee case that set precedent on the regional need for affordable housing.
- Changes to Revenue Code: Lynne’s work for Lawyers Clearing House resulted in a change to the Internal Revenue Real Estate tax code in Massachusetts to create a category for affordable rental housing so it would be flagged and taxed properly.
- The Second Step: For 9 years I served on the board of The Second Step, a local nonprofit that helps survivor’s of domestic violence. We created a mentoring program for parents and their children, a justice center, a capital needs budgeting process, and I negotiated their office and transitional shelter leases.
- Mentoring: I believe in training our youth and bringing them into the complex world of housing and community development.
- I have mentored students at Babson College, members of Crew Boston and most recently, in a pilot program for the Local Initiative Support Corporation. Nothing made me happier than to see my mentee realize her value, advocate for herself, and receive a promotion.
- Guest Lecturer Clark University Masters in Finance Program 2/22/2024 – Teaching about the value of real estate market research and the many types of studies.
- Citizen Planner Training Collaborative 3/16/2024 – Anchoring a panel on how to permit, document and preserve affordable housing.
Vote for Lynne for BHA in Brookline’s Town Election May 7, 2024