Three years ago, the LHA sought to repurpose an aging, former LHA group home on Nesmith Street owned by the Authority. This property required a new roof and boiler, but limited funding hindered progress at Nesmith House. In February of 2017, the property was sold to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell, who we knew would make better use of the property and keep the property affordable. The property sale was blessed by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) with the stipulation Habitat for Humanity maintain permanently affordable housing at 80% of the median income. Habitat for Humanity closed on the property in March, the same day Governor Baker shut down the state.

The project came to fruition this May for Habitat for Humanity, who converted an eyesore into a beautiful two-family home, with outdoor living space. How blessed and appreciative these two families were to be able to shelter in place in their own home! Thank you to Habitat for Humanity for all your efforts in ensuring new families have a safe, affordable place to call home.

Spring typically is a time of anticipation and excitement, as seniors look forward to wrapping up another long year and get ready to embark on new journey in their lives. This year’s high school seniors have had a tough year and will have very different memories of their senior year—no in-classroom learning, no-spring sports, no prom, and the countless other social occasions to celebrate, have now been marred by masks and social distancing. Students cannot get the days they have lost back, but with a little patience and hope, they will be able to focus on the new opportunities that await them. We look forward to continuing to play a role in their success.

The Lowell Youth Activities Program Inc.’s Philip L. Shea Scholarship Awards Program has been providing opportunities for high school seniors living in public housing for the last 25 years. Our program’s success, and the success of our students is only made possible through the generous support of the Lowell community. We understand and appreciate that there are many needs to be met during this challenging time, but we ask that you remember higher education in your giving priorities this year. A strong educational foundation is critical to the economic self-sufficiency of our young residents. Help us continue to forge new memories for Lowell Housing Authority youth by giving today.

This year, we are hoping to host our scholarship awards night on Thursday, August 20, 2020, and are pleased to announce that we will be honoring former Mayor and active City Councilor William Samaras. Given our need to adhere to social distancing guidance, we realize that holding a large event may not be possible this year. If we should cancel our event, the Lowell Youth Activities Program will be developing a multimedia experience to highlight our award recipients and share their stories with you.

We ask for your support. Donations, sponsored advertising opportunities, and tickets (if hosted) are available by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lowell-youth-activities-program-inc-philip-l-shea-scholarship-awards-tickets-105957894916.  Thank you for your generous contribution to the Lowell Youth Activities Program.

Please continue to visit our website for updates regarding this event. 

The Lowell Housing Authority hosted its Annual Meeting of the Board of Commissioners last night. This meeting is a special night for the Authority. The agency reports on the progress of last year’s goals and looks towards the future by establishing new agency goals for the coming year. Beyond business as usual, the agency takes the time to acknowledge our community partners, recognize an employee of the year, and most importantly celebrate the accomplishments of our residents.

In 2019, the agency set the goal to disposition our scattered site properties, and have since realized $8.5M in sales revenue of all 87 properties. These funds will be used to develop additional affordable housing in the City of Lowell.

Strengthening our team was an important objective for the agency in 2019. Property managers received training in many areas including reasonable accommodations, fair housing, documenting violations, repayment agreements, REAC compliance and crime prevention.  Two of our assistant properties also received their Public Housing Manager Certifications, and a member of our finance team received certification from the Massachusetts OIG in Public Procurement (MCPPO).

The strength of our team is critical to the financial health of the agency. Our Asset Management properties continue to be revenue producing, and the agency received a 24/25 financial indicator score at the close of 2019.  The agency also continued to expand upon a 2006 Energy Performance Contract between the LHA, HUD and Ameresco. An application to extend the contract for another 8 years was submitted to HUD in July, with approval anticipated this April.  The agency hopes to improve lighting, install efficiency toilets, replace heaters and boilers, and roof replacement and insulation upgrades.

We continued to engage our residents and stakeholders in 2019, increasing our audience on Facebook and Twitter, and developing e-technologies to better serve our residents. We also conducted technology workshops at our elderly properties to bridge the digital divide.

All of our work would not be possible, without the confidence and commitment from our community partners, our dedicated staff, and the support from our residents. We take the opportunity each year to acknowledge their contributions to the LHA’s success.

Congratulations to our 2019 award winners!

Community Partners of the Year

• Enterprise Bank
• The Kaitlin Kazanjian Foundation
• Lowell Community Health Center

Residents of the Year

• The Joseph Family, Public Housing
• Dany Ngeth, Family Self-Sufficiency Program
• Kristine Brown, Housing Choice Voucher Program

Employee of the Year

• Gerard Beausoleil

The Lowell Housing Authority is excited to announce that we are the proud recipients of a $2.3M HUD Jobs Plus grant! The Jobs Plus grant develops locally based, job-driven approaches to increase earnings and advance employment outcomes through work readiness, employer linkages, job placement, educational advancement, skills development, and financial literacy for public housing residents. The Jobs Plus grant is a collaborative grant which helps participants secure higher paying jobs, by providing job training and placement wrap-around services, as well as a rent-based incentive for participants to increase earnings.

The Jobs Plus grant was submitted to HUD in partnership with the MassHire Lowell Career Center, whose commitment to the project was crucial to our successful application. We are 1 of only 9 housing authorities across the country, and the only housing authority in Massachusetts to be funded for this exciting opportunity. This funding award will support the job-ready residents of LHA’s 524- unit, North Common Village family development.

Dr. Gary Wallace, Executive Director for the Lowell Housing Authority expressed the significance of this award to North Common Village. “I’m so proud of the agency and our community partners for achieving this award. This is an exciting opportunity for our North Common Village residents to increase their earned income and become self-sufficient by connecting them to employment, education, and financial services.”

Lowell Housing Authority’s Vice Chairperson, Philip L. Shea, commented that “receiving this $2,300,000 Federal Grant is a great opportunity for work-able residents living in a public housing development such as North Common Village—the property where I grew up as a young man. Residents will receive educational and vocational training in order to help them get a good paying job with transportation and day care assistance. The Lowell Housing Authority, under the leadership of our Executive Director, Dr. Gary Wallace, will work with our 9 key partners to organize and start the 3-year program.”

Implementation of this grant requires a community-based approach, and the agency is grateful to our community partners who will be integral to the success of this program. Thank you to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for their confidence in our agency. The LHA would also like to thank our dedicated community partners, who without their support, this program would not be possible. We look forward to working with you to provide economic opportunities for our residents.

Lowell Housing Authority Jobs Plus Community Partnerships

• • • • Mass Hire Lowell Career Center
      • Coalition for a Better Acre
      • Girls Inc.
      • Community Teamwork
      • The Frederick A. Abisi Adult Education Center
      • Lowell General Hospital
      • Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union
      • UTEC-Breaking Barriers to Youth Success
      • Middlesex Community College

For more information about the Lowell Housing Authority’s Job Plus grant award, and the other HUD award recipients, please visit: https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/documents/FY19JobsPlusProjectSummaries.pdf

Antonia Maxner (Silva), affectionately referred to as Toni, is a resident of Lowell Housing Authority’s City View Towers property. Toni has an affable, no-nonsense personality, a warm heart, and is proud of her Portuguese roots. She loves to cook, but crocheting is her true passion. Toni welcomed the Authority to her home this week to share her love for crocheting. Scarves, shawls, hats, and gloves in various sizes were neatly organized on her kitchen table along with her working desk, which also featured a small sewing machine. Her home was just as immaculate as her attention to detail when laying out all her creations for us to admire.

Toni moved to City View Towers in 2018 along with her husband Maron. She met her husband Maron, working as a Certified Nursing Assistant, with Maron working as a nurse. She learned the art of crocheting attending to the many elderly residents who provided her with lessons, which she took gracefully. Toni and Maron lived happily and mostly kept to themselves at City View Towers, but in 2019, Maron sadly and unexpectantly passed away. While grieving, Toni takes comfort in taking care of her new cat Milo and has a positive attitude towards what life brings her way. Crocheting, while always a hobby, became a stronger passion to keep her busy in her husband’s absence.

The unique handmade articles she crafts take 1-3 hours to crochet depending on the article, and she donates them to St. Patrick’s Church, who distributes them to those in need. She expressed a sincere desire to make a difference in this world for those around her and to share her crocheting with others. Her articles are handcrafted with love, and this is evident in the quality of her work. When proudly pointing out each article, she shared that she has made a lot of clothing for women and girls, but will also be working on boys’ clothes, so they don’t feel left out. Toni hopes to continue to make clothing to donate to others and has ambitions to start a crocheting circle for interested residents to learn to crochet.

The Lowell Housing Authority thanks Toni for sharing her story, for her hospitality, and for her kindness towards others. The Housing Authority would like to support Toni’s efforts, and we’re seeking your help. We have the talent, but we need the supplies and eager pupils. The Housing Authority is collecting yarn donations, and recruiting residents interested in learning to crochet.

Help Us Support This New Resident Initiative!

If you or someone you know has extra skeins of yarn you’re willing to donate, or is a resident of an LHA property interested in learning a new skill, please contact Andrew Rocha at [email protected], or call 978-364-5311.

We are pleased to announce the Lowell Housing Authority has received “High Performer Status” for the Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) utilizes these assessment tools to monitor our agency’s performance and program compliance across several indicators. This includes an evaluation of the physical conditions of our properties, and financial and executive management practices of the agency. This year’s PHAS score was 91/100. These scores are a testament to the concerted efforts of the LHA’s executive and property management teams.

Thank you to Sherry Giblin, Chief Financial Officer, Sam Talbot, UPCS Inspector, Brian Moriarty, Superintendent of Maintenance, Brian Dean, Assistant Superintendent of Maintenance, Adam Garvey, Assistant Executive Director, and our property management teams, who ensure our properties are well-maintained and our resources are utilized wisely to provide the greatest benefit for our residents. Thank you also to our Board of Commissioners and our residents who support the work of our agency each and every day.
Achieving high-performer status provides us with additional grant opportunities, as well as an increase in capital funds. We look forward to improving upon this year’s score and embracing the challenges to come.

Click here to view the full report.

The Lowell Housing Authority’s Tech Talk, senior technology advising workshop series wrapped up the year with its final workshop. A grant funded initiative, this program brought technology support services and engaging lessons designed to encourage residents to embrace technology.

Residents learned to get the most out of their smartphones, access email, the latest digital communication tools, and a look at smart devices to make modern conveniences more accessible to elderly residents. Thank you to the Greater Lowell Community Foundation for supporting this initiative.

A special thank you to Brian Sparrow, Resident Technology Adviser for City View Towers, for designing and delivering quality, engaging workshop programming for our residents.

While this was a great funded initiative, additional workshops are being considered at a later date, and regular technology support office hours will continue at each of the LHA’s elderly properties.

Check out highlights from our last workshop entitled “Living in the Future… Today”.

Season’s Greetings,

As the Lowell Housing Authority approaches another year, we reflect upon all that we’ve accomplished and look towards the future to make next year even better than the last. This past year, the agency strove to improve communication with residents, sought ways to expand affordable housing opportunities, and craft new innovative support services for our residents.  A lot has happened in 2019, and we’re excited to share this year’s experiences!

Increasing the available affordable housing in the City of Lowell has always been a priority for the Housing Authority, but this year, the agency made considerable strides to ensure that in just a few short years, our dreams would become a reality. In 2018, the agency received federal approval to disposition scattered site properties with the goal to use the proceeds to develop mixed-use housing along the Merrimack Street corridor, with its nonprofit affiliate, the Revitalization Effort Towards New Urbanism. To date, the Lowell Housing Authority sold all but two of the scattered site properties and has purchased additional properties on Broadway Street and Decatur Streets for future development. This project is far from over, but we are confident in another year of progress towards additional affordable housing in the City.

While progress continues in developing new housing, we are ever mindful of other programs that help us further our mission.  The LHA is grateful to be a recipient again this past year to administer $24,500 in Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding, and $241,227 in funding for 21 Mainstream Vouchers. Both programs assist those facing homelessness by offering rental assistance to remain in place or vouchers to provide applicants a safe, stable, place to call home. A special thank you to the City of Lowell, and our Division of Leased Housing program for implementing these critical services for the community.

We “Teched” the halls across the LHA this year, moving towards more up-to-date computer equipment, an email management system, and we’re in the process of updating our security cameras, and keyless entry systems. These are exciting and significant changes at the Authority that will improve efficiency, and security at our properties. Beyond technology advancements in safety and security, the agency has employed robocalls for more expedient communication with residents during snow removal, and during emergency situations. The Lowell Housing Authority is also putting the finishing touches on our online application and resident account portals, which will be officially rolled out early next year.

In 2019, we encouraged residents to contact us using our new contact form on our website, which was designed to provide residents with another alternative to reach our office for assistance.  Contact us, they did. We were able to help 248 people this year, who reached out to us using our new form. This has proven to be an efficient and effective avenue to improve communication with our applicants, residents, and stakeholders. We look forward to continuing to find new ways to improve our customer service in the coming year.

Aside from making internal technology upgrades, the agency has brought technology directly to our residents, particularly seniors. The LHA received a grant called Tech Savvy Seniors, and developed a technology outreach program called Tech Talk, which is funded by the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, and led by City View Tower resident, Brian Sparrow. Residents at Belvidere Heights, City View Towers, and Francis Gatehouse Mill were able to learn technology basics, including navigating their smartphones, digital communication tools, safe online shopping, and the exciting possibilities of using smart devices in their daily lives.

The work that we achieve would not be possible without our dedicated team, and we’ve expanded this year. The agency hired Rita Brousseau, our new Chief Procurement Office, and Erica Bradford, Joshua Aizpurua, and Clinton Wilson as new Assistant Property Managers. Through heat, rain, and snow, our facilities management department keeps our properties looking their finest, and In 2019, we added Paul Leakus, Solid Yary, Cameron Descoteaux, and Tony Patenaude to our growing facilities management team. These new employees come to the Authority with diverse backgrounds and experience, and have brought with them new ideas, and most importantly a commitment to those we serve. We are excited for them to grow with the agency, and for the many contributions they will bring to the LHA in 2020.

While we look towards the future, we did not forget who we are this year. The LHA was pleased to unveil the Housing Authority’s historical exhibit. This project–a year in the making–culminated in a historical documentary which told the stories of our residents, who had lived at the Lowell Housing Authority throughout the decades. The exhibit also honored the leaders of the LHA, who laid the foundation for who we are today.

There is a lot to be grateful for in 2019, and we are blessed to have been presented with the prospects, and the fruitful community partnerships to continue to provide the highest quality housing and support services for our residents. Thank you for your continued support. On behalf of the Lowell Housing Authority, and the Board of Commissioners, we wish you a safe, and happy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Gary K. Wallace

The Lowell Housing Authority is pleased to announce that we will administer the Homeless Prevention Program, through an award from the City of Lowell, under the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG).

This program will provide financial assistance to eligible individuals and families living in the City of Lowell to address short-term emergency rental and utility arrearages. In addition, counseling and referrals to area service agencies will be offered on our efforts to prevent homelessness.  Applicants must be at 30% or below of the area median income in order to qualify.

Application appointments will be scheduled beginning Tuesday, October 15, 2019 (Monday thru Friday from 8:30 am – 2:00 pm) at the Lowell Housing Authority, Division of Leased Housing Programs, 350 Moody Street, Lowell, MA  01854.

For questions and further assistance, please contact Ken Khirv at           (978) 364-5350 or by email [email protected].

The Lowell Housing Authority is committed to serving those within our community who are most in need.