After working in affordable housing for more than 40 years, Lisa Alberghini is stepping back.
The longtime industry leader retired as executive vice president of the Housing Partnership Network (HPN) at the end of June but will continue to serve as a consultant for the national organization, including working on an initiative to increase local capacity for affordable housing development and financing that will benefit residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Prior to joining HPN in 2019, Alberghini spent 36 years as an affordable housing developer. She was president of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA), a Boston-based nonprofit developer, for 18 years. Before that, she worked 18 years at The Community Builders, another nonprofit developer, where she began her housing career and rose to director of the Boston office.
The seeds were planted even earlier. As a young teen, Alberghini would assist her mother who provided art therapy at a senior housing residence.
“I’ve always thought of housing as a vehicle for social justice,” she says.
At POUA, she led the development of award-winning, mixed-income housing, including Uphams Crossing, which transformed a former church site into 80 affordable homes for families, including many that had been homeless, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
In another example, POUA rehabbed the historic Boston Young Men’s Christian Union building into 46 affordable homes, also with units aimed at those who have experienced homelessness.
Creating mixed-income housing and working on a diversity of developments have been career highlights, according to Alberghini.
After working at two nonprofit development firms, she joined HPN, a collaborative of more than 100 leading housing and community development nonprofits. Alberghini calls it “the capstone” of her career. She was now seeing and working with the best nonprofits from around the country, helping to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and strengthen their impact.
“Lisa is really remarkable. She has been an invaluable part of HPN, especially our signature peer exchange platform, not only because of her deep knowledge and expertise, but because she knows how to connect the country’s most prolific housing practitioners in ways that address our most significant social and economic challenges,” says Robin Hughes, HPN president and CEO. “Throughout her career, Lisa has been as efficacious working on the ground in communities as she has been in shaping federal housing policy or designing innovative financing solutions. She is always willing to listen, to share, to support, and to lead. The entire field of affordable housing is better off for her having been in it.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberghini orchestrated countless virtual meetings to assist members through the crisis. HPN assembled different peer groups, such as chief financial officers or developers, so the members could discuss their specific needs. The increased level of peer exchange has continued after the pandemic.
As Alberghini winds down her work at HPN, another group is rising up with her assistance. She helped establish HPN’s Next Gen Talent Academy, an initiative with Project Destined, that connects college students to affordable housing developers to expose them to the industry.
“I would love for people to think of affordable housing as a career and have the industry be more intentional about that and to recruit younger, new, diverse talent,” she says.
Looking ahead, the Boston resident is planning to volunteer at Eastie Farm, a community-supported agriculture nonprofit.She will also continue to chair of the real estate committee for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, one of the largest social service providers in Massachusetts.
