Affordable Housing’s Leading Women

Lisa Alberghini

The Housing Partnership Network (HPN), a collaborative of the nation’s leading affordable housing and community development nonprofits, held more than 100 virtual meetings to assist members through the COVID-19 crisis last year.

It began with one urgent meeting March 10 just as the pandemic was hitting. From there, HPN established 12 different peer groups, such as chief financial officers, resident services leaders, and multifamily housing developers, and began holding gatherings for each of them to address their specific needs.

Ideas from one organization would be shared with others. For example, a nonprofit in a state about to go into lockdown would gain insight from another that was already operating under similar restrictions.

Peer-to-peer learning is at the core of HPN and its more than 100 member organizations, says Lisa Alberghini, the collaborative’s executive vice president of peer exchange, policy, and innovation.

“The work on COVID will continue this year, and we’re going deeper into peer exchange in other areas as well,” she says. Other key issues will include an increased focus on new development, racial equity, and greater policy opportunities given the new administration.

Alberghini also is working to create partnerships with colleges and universities to introduce young people, especially people of color, to the industry.

She joined HPN in 2019, bringing 36 years of experience as an affordable housing developer and working at nonprofits. She was the longtime president of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, a Boston-based nonprofit developer. Before that, she worked at The Community Builders, another nonprofit developer, where she began her housing career and rose to director of the Boston office.

An interest in housing and public service may have been planted years earlier. As a young teen, Alberghini would assist her mother who provided art therapy at a senior housing residence, and she grew up in a home that was shared with elderly members of her family as they aged.

Alberghini is on the board of New Lease for Homeless Families, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing family homelessness in Massachusetts, and on the Multifamily Advisory Committee for MassHousing. Her daughter is an astrophysicist, currently doing post-doctorate work. Alberghini admires her ability to explain complex concepts with ease, and for entering another field not historically open to women.