After starting her career as an urban planner, Susan Gittelman transitioned into affordable housing development. Since 2003, she has been director of B’nai B’rith Housing New England, a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to produce non-sectarian housing in the Greater Boston area. The organization is affiliated with the New England Realty Unit of B’nai B’rith International, a global Jewish humanitarian organization.
Though their coverage extends as far west as Interstate 495, the group has made something of a specialty of creating affordable housing in some of the least affordable areas of the state, including Chestnut Hill.
Susan Gittelman
Title: Executive Director, B’nai B’rith Housing New England; Boston
Age: 46
Experience: 23 years
Q: How do you pick projects?
A: Our focus is to work closely, hand in glove with communities, to create housing that responds to local needs. So we don’t go in with a particular plan. We’ve developed senior housing, we have a very strong record there, we’ve developed homeownership housing. We have a portfolio where we can do all different housing models. Our goal is to go in and become a trusted partner. So in Brighton that looks [one way], and in Chestnut Hill, it looks very different.
Really the two biggest things that we see a lot is providing for seniors, and helping folks stay in their long-time community when sometimes the housing stock there isn’t really appropriate or doesn’t have the kind of housing options that serve people’s needs. The other need we hear about a lot are families with grown kids who aren’t able to stay in the communities that they grew up in because of how expensive the housing options are. And that there aren’t housing options that help young professionals that are just starting out. There are other needs, but I think those are two particularly what we hear about a lot.
Q: What are the challenges for towns that want to deal with those problems?
A: In many cases the underlying zoning in towns needs a second look in order to support housing development that’s not single-family. I would say in many communities that’s the biggest challenge. There’s an enormous political will to do this kind of work. Communities in Massachusetts understand and value the idea of creating housing for seniors who’ve been involved in those communities for a long time.
Q: What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on recently?
A: The [33Comm] development that we did in Newton, in Chestnut Hill, was particularly [satisfying]…Every one of these developments has its complexities. That particular development was particularly interesting to me because we were able to create such a strong relationship with the city, in terms of people saying, ‘We desperately need homeownership, work with us.’ That was a really wonderful experience in terms of coming together and creating something very special.
Q: B’nai B’rith Housing seems to be particularly hands-on when it comes to developing and overseeing projects, handling a lot of that work in-house. What drives that?
A: I think we are a little bit unusual. Nonprofits and Community Development Corporations sort of run the range – and this is partly about who we are. We have a very strong board of directors, and we have a lot of people who are involved in the private sector who work with us on a volunteer basis, and so we have a lot of expertise that we can take advantage of, and that’s very much apparent in how we deliver our work.… I think that’s very much about who we are, that we have the expertise to be that trusted partner who’s going to get stuff done and be able to deliver, because we take that hands-on approach from beginning to end.
[With] this Newton project, we’re one of four [groups] nationally that won an award from the Urban Land Institute for creating workforce housing in high-cost communities – we’re the only nonprofit. Sometimes I forget, and something like that reminds me, we’re able to bring that to the table because of the folks who are invested in us.
Q: Every developer’s had tear-your-hair-out moments when their projects hit a snag. What’s the fun part of the job that gets you through those?
A: I’m trained as a planner, but I’ve always been a hands-on sort of person, and I’ve been doing project management for a lot of my career. What I love is like, moving the walls. What’s very nice about our work is, it’s very concrete. It’s very satisfying. It’s not a transaction. There’s a physical dimension to our work, and I find that very very satisfying….putting a trellis in, or creating a rain garden element, and thinking about, ‘How are the residents actually going to use this? How can we think about some programming that is really enriching?’ ….It’s solving problems, and pushing the envelope a little bit about how might we be able to do this a little bit better.
Susan Gittelman’s Top Five Tips For Creating Affordable Housing:
- Be a partner with communities to help them attain affordable housing goals.
- Investigate all housing types – seniors and families, homeownership and rental.
- Determine the best fit for the neighborhood and the town.
- Keep standards high – develop high-quality construction using great design.
- Remind folks that residents of affordable housing are important citizens of our community, including town employees, medical workers and longtime residents.
