Opportunity Communities, LLC

A special shout out to our 2024 Community Partner of The Year: North Shore Community Development Coalition !💓 🙌 They’ve been with us from the start, providing a home for one of our first mobile pantry sites at their community center, Espacio, and now for The Market. 🏠 We are grateful to partner with them to nourish and create thriving communities. 🤝

TND is proud to announce that we have been awarded Massachusetts General Hospital/Mass General Brigham Community Health Impact Funding for our program focused on acquiring, upgrading, and permanently preserving multifamily properties as affordable, energy-efficient, and healthy homes. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e7azG-jj

Thanks to Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) for hosting an alumni symposium this past week, where one presentation pulled career lessons from endurance sports. Marathoners Jessica B. Lee and Kyle A. Ferachi discussed breaking challenges into chunks—26 miles is daunting, but if after 10 miles you tell yourself you can do that again, it adds up before you know it. I’m at the top of my second decade at my law firm, telling myself: “I just put in a decade; I can do that again.” Jessica and Kyle also explained that endurance sports require mental toughness. My mind goes to boxing, where fighters at the highest level try to break each other’s will. Last month, Oleksandr Usyk faced a man half a foot taller and 40 pounds heavier than himself in Tyson Fury and walked away with all the heavyweight belts. In the run up, Tyson called Usyk a rabbit that will run on fight night. Usyk responded: “I am not a heavyweight but … Rabbit is good animal.” Usyk found ways to let Fury spend himself in the ring. Fury looked good until he looked exhausted, and then Usyk pounced. In the words of Teddy Atlas, Usyk has a PhD in winning. Breaking down challenges that can psyche us out, and developing mental toughness to stay cool in the flames, are both high on the list of how to do hard things. Why not choose something easier? Banksy gets my motivation: “[Y]ou die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” I’m not anxious about eventual death, but my name being said a last time gives me chills. What outlives us to say: we were here, we existed? No second death for Usyk, the 45th lineal heavyweight champion dating back to John Sullivan in 1892. Usyk won all the marbles at his natural weight class, then moved up to the flagship weight class as a small man among big men. By not choosing something easier, he’s now one of the greats. Except I’m coming to terms with not landing on a lineal heavyweight champion-type list—and not for lack for trying, particularly in music before law. So why not choose something easier? A meaningful run in at the symposium encouraged me to keep at it. Providence sat me next to William Barrow, whose great uncle is the 16th lineal heavyweight champion and longest reigning, eventually vacating the title through retirement instead of defeat, with 26 defenses over a decade plus. Joe Louis’ legacy of achievement is not lost on his great nephew, much like heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua recently said of his son: "I would ask him to probably look at accountancy because I think it’s good to understand numbers.” I feel seen! Our endurance sports are law, engineering, architecture, accounting. Of course, the hard work of being helpful is not limited to these disciplines. Greatness attained through service and becoming a go-to person to get things done is an equal opportunity aspiration. “I just put in a decade; I can do that again.”

The Neighborhood Developers together with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, welcomed a delegation of 14 Federal Reserve Bank Presidents and Vice Presidents to Chelsea. Guests toured TND's 25 Sixth Street transit-oriented development, which includes 62 affordable homes under construction. They discussed federal-level interventions that could support housing production and learned about the Working Cities Challenge program. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/enbJXRhD We want to thank local leaders and allies who joined the event and/or participated as panelists in these important discussions: Rafael Mares, Jose Iraheta, Leslie Aldrich, Chrystal Kornegay, Marc Dohan, Rachel Heller, Tim Sullivan, Joanie Straussman Brandon, and Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez.

As a career long affordable housing advocate and COO of Housing Opportunities Unlimited, I'm grateful that the Housing Navigator Massachusetts, Inc has filled a void and provides a single source of rental affordable housing. But what is affordable? Jennifer Gilbert joined Scott Pollack and me to pen this month's ULI Boston/New England series on our housing crisis. To read more, click the link: https://lnkd.in/euXT-die