Empowering People, Driving Good Business
Returning to the network’s hometown of Boston, HPN’s 64th Member Meeting gathered over 300 attendees from 85 member organizations to connect and collaborate.
HPN’s strong contingent of Boston members —2Life Communities, Planning Office of Urban Affairs, Preservation of Affordable Housing, The Community Builders, BlueHub Capital, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, and Massachusetts Housing Partnership — helped plan sessions and welcome attendees to neighborhoods across the city.
The meeting launched on Wednesday evening with former HPN CEO, Tom Bledsoe, presenting Kathy Laborde, CEO of the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, with the Robert B. Whittlesey Leadership Award during the opening reception.
This award recognizes one leader annually who has strengthened the affordable housing sector and embodies Whittlesey’s legacy of tenacity, creativity, collaboration, a focus on residents, and more.
On Thursday morning, meeting attendees heard from Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, who highlighted the Healy/Driscoll administration’s belief that expanding housing expands opportunities. She encouraged the room of practitioners to stand strong, work with their public partners, and believe in our strength as a sector. “No one is coming to save us,” she reminded the room. “We are the calvary.”
Following the Lieutenant Governor’s reminder about the urgency of this work, HPN CEO Robin Hughes sat down for a conversation with Chrystal Kornegay, CEO of MassHousing (The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) and was joined by two HPN members and close partners of MassHousing, Moddie Turay, CEO of Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation and Patricia Belden, Executive Vice President and Chief Real Estate Development Officer at The Community Builders. They discussed everything from equity financing for mixed-income housing to homeownership to support for developers of color.
Throughout all, it was clear that strong leadership and a deep commitment to partnership and collaboration are keys to success in Massachusetts.
Before heading into a day full of peer exchange, HPN Board Chair and CommonBond President & CEO Deidre Schmidt led the network through a vote to confirm a new slate for the Board of Directors. She also welcomed six new organizations that have joined HPN in 2026 — Archway Communities, LEAP Housing, NHS of Baltimore, One Roof Community Housing, Partners for the Common Good, and project:HOMES.
Learn about the meeting’s many sessions below.
Communities of Practice and Concurrent Sessions
During community of practice sessions, colleagues in similar roles (CEOs, CFOs, CEOs/HR leaders, CDFIs/Lenders, Multifamily Developers, and Property Operations and Resident Services leaders) came together to share experiences, strategies, and identify ways to collaborate.
Cross-cutting sessions focused on a variety of different themes, including investing in data for decision making, partnering with placed-based philanthropy, using New Markets Tax Credits for homeownership, telling better stories to build support for affordable housing, and much more.
Many sessions focused on the stressors facing the affordable housing sector and with help from an ongoing partnership with researchers from the Terner Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, homed in on the strategies members are already deploying and the broader sectoral solutions that are needed moving forward.
One participant shared: “The information exchange was wonderful. I appreciate the free flow of the conversation. People are doing some really great work.”
Off-Site Sessions
With seven different off-site visits to choose from, participants had the opportunity to explore a range of Boston neighborhoods and housing models.
The team at the Planning Office of Urban Affairs showed off their new mixed-income development in the heart of downtown, 41 LaGrange, and took a group to the West End to explore the history of urban renewal and redevelopment.
The Community Builders (TCB) hosted a group at The Lyndia, the largest permanent supportive housing development in New England, and TCB’s President & CEO, Bart Mitchell, led a group through a tour of affordable housing and community development in the South End.
Preservation of Affordable Housing brought members to Flat 9 at Whittier, their project in Roxbury for which they received a Choice Neighborhood grant. Another off-site visit focused on affordable homeownership with Asian CDC guiding a walk through Chinatown. Finally, one group left Boston to visit Opus Newton, 2Life Communities’ innovative “missing middle” development for seniors.
Reflecting on the value of off-site visits, one participant shared: “Seeing developments and hearing the challenges and successes is always helpful for informing future development and policy.”
Closing Plenary
Our closing plenary session on Friday morning featured HPN members operating throughout New England, beyond the Boston metro area. HPN’s Executive Vice President of Capital Markets, Katie Rodriguez, moderated a panel with Keith Fairey, President & CEO at Wayfinders (Western Massachusetts), Nancy Owens, President at Evernorth (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), and Michael Monte, CEO at Champlain Housing Trust (Vermont).
All three leaders discussed how they embrace the challenges and opportunities that come with working in smaller cities and rural areas, emphasizing the importance of building coalitions and partnerships.
One member shared, “What a great view into how small communities can creatively use their powers to still make meaningful impacts, and some good examples for replication.”
