Linden Terrace Redevelopment Secures $41 Million in Grant Funding

September 4, 2026
• Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll stopped by the Needham Housing Authority to celebrate the award and tour vacant units at the property.

As local and state officials funneled into a studio apartment along Linden Street Thursday, one organizer cautioned that only seven people could enter at a time. Current units sit at just 405 square feet, and while they cater to seniors and residents with disabilities, many aren’t ADA accessible either.

For several years, the NHA envisioned modernizing the 72 affordable housing units — along with another 80 along Chambers Street — but the project faced financial setbacks.

That changed with a $41 million funding award, announced Thursday during a visit from Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. She emphasized the Healey-Driscoll administration’s commitment to housing production, which she said is short about 222,000 units to keep up with demand.

Prior to touring two vacant units, Driscoll addressed a crowded Linden/Chambers community room, filled both with state and local electeds, as well as several current tenants. She applauded the town’s efforts and collaboration across boards and committees.

“Needham is doing the work on the ground,” she said in an interview. “You saw the collection of folks here at the local level… who all have put their hand up and say, ‘We want this project to move forward,’ and that, to us, is a real good exercise of communities telling us what they want. We want to build housing. We want to build it here. We want to be a good partner to support it.”

Needham is one of 20 communities in the commonwealth to receive grant funding for housing development this cycle, totaling $278 million across 2,547 units, the vast majority of which will be affordable. That funding, through state and federal financing and tax credits, comes partly out of the Affordable Homes Act signed into law last year.

About $12.5 million of the awarded $41 million comes from the Public Housing Innovations grant cycle. The remaining $28.4 million will be paid out in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity, as well as via loans.

The NHA now has close to $65 million in funding to put toward completion of the project, according to its Chair Reg Foster. He said he is “elated and still in a state of amazement and shock” and stressed the need for development, given the buildings’ age.

“They’re very substandard by today’s minimum standards, being tiny studio apartments,” Foster said. “They’re not handicapped intensive. They all have two-step stoops, and they’re generally worn out.”

Linden/Chambers is a collection of 152 affordable studio apartments servicing seniors and residents with disabilities. In the first phase of the project, the 72 units on Linden Street — single-story structures built between the late ’50s and the early ’60s — will be replaced by 136 units, most of which would be one-bedrooms. In the second phase of development, the 80 units on Chambers Street — built in 1971 — will become 111 units, also a mix between one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms. The new units will increase to about 575 square ft.

Attendees wore stickers that referred to “76 new homes,” the number of units to be built under phase 1a of the project.

For some residents, the funding milestone couldn’t come quick enough. Megan Rockett, part of the resident advisory board who moved onto Linden Street in 2012, said it’s been “a long time coming.” She described her home as “not made for modern living” — her bedroom lacks a door, and she can’t host friends or family, given the size.

Her building would be among the first to be torn down to make way for new units.

“I couldn’t be happier,” she said.

After Town Meeting members approved $5.5 million toward development in 2024, the project received further support from the Planning Board, who signed off on a special permit that fall. An additional nearly $1.4 million in Community Preservation Act dollars funded pre-development.

Foster pointed to former state Rep. Denise Garlick as one of the chief advocates for the project, enabling American Rescue Plan Act dollars while in office. He called her a “guardian angel.”

Garlick stood in the crowd Thursday, throwing vocal support behind Foster for his volunteer efforts to move redevelopment forward.

“Today is a vision that is being realized. It is a promise that’s being kept to the residents here, to our community,” Garlick said in an interview. “I think it has not been an easy road, and we cannot think that this happened easily or quickly. It was step by step. Reg never stopped moving.”

During phase 1a of the project, about half of the Linden units will be torn down and rebuilt, followed by the second half in phase 1b. Both phases would take about 16 months, according to officials’ previous estimates.

The NHA oversees several additional affordable housing complexes, including the neighboring High Rock Estates. The NHA looks to soon begin renovation at Seabeds Way, federal elderly and disabled housing.

Most state-owned housing serves older adults and was built in the ’50s and ’60s, Driscoll said, meaning “they lack some of the modern amenities.” The Affordable Homes Act works to update existing housing, add units and better serve individuals and working families, she added.

That’s not without its challenges — Driscoll noted “there’s no cavalry coming” from Washington, and building materials and the cost of land are both high. That, coupled with resistance among residents to housing production efforts, including the MBTA Communities Act, all present barriers.

“We’re doing the work that’s also, I hope, feeding the soul of communities,” Driscoll said to attendees Thursday. “It is hard as a local official to stand up for housing because it’s change. Fundamentally, we’re trying to change areas. You all know that, you’ve had your battles here, I’m sure, and maybe some yet to come. But we’ve got to figure out how to capture hearts and minds when it comes to housing and have community members who are willing to say, ‘How do we get to yes?’”

Driscoll said accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, as well as converting office buildings to residential, aid in their cause.

The Linden Terrace groundbreaking was originally scheduled tentatively for summer 2025, though Foster said they are now eyeing early February to begin construction. He said he expects the new buildings to be occupant-ready 20 months later.

Before the 40 units are torn down, the remaining 32 tenants will be relocated in January, Foster added.

Construction is currently underway at 100-110 West St., where developer Greystar is building 189 housing units, 24 of which will be deemed affordable. Additional housing is proposed at 888 Great Plain Ave. and 193 Garden St., which would together bring about 36 units, according to recent drafted plans.

Housing is a critical issue to Foster, who spoke of the serious need some people face.

“If you don’t have a home, then it’s very hard to do anything else. It’s hard to hold down a job when you’re living in your car, or you’re living in somebody’s basement,” he said. “There’s a lot you can’t do, and you have that chronic insecurity. It’s really, very fundamental to the human animal, whether you happen to be a family or a senior person or disabled person.”