Posted on November 12, 2015
BOSTON --- Governor Charlie Baker has appointed Alicia Sasser Modestino to the board of directors of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP).
“Alicia has been a leading voice in housing policy in Massachusetts and I am delighted to appoint her to the MHP board,” said Governor Baker. “Her experience will help MHP and the Baker Administration find innovative ways to provide more housing opportunities that will make the Commonwealth even stronger.”
Modestino is currently an associate professor at Northeastern University with appointments in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics. Previously, Modestino was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston where she led numerous research projects on regional economic and policy issues for the New England Public Policy Center. In that role, she frequently advised policymakers and business leaders and testified on key pieces of legislation related to housing, health care and labor market policies.
“I’m honored to join the board and look forward to contributing to MHP’s track record of challenging the usual ways of building affordable housing,” said Modestino. “My goal is to help MHP continue to innovate with new products and programs so that the Commonwealth can build the housing it needs to support strong economic and job growth across the income spectrum.”
Modestino holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where she also served as a doctoral fellow in the Inequality and Social Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government.
“Alicia has been a go-to person on housing in Massachusetts for more than a decade and we’re thrilled that Governor Baker has appointed her to our board,” said Clark Ziegler, MHP’s executive director. “She’s published economic papers at the Boston Fed on the scope of the affordable housing problem in Massachusetts, the state of our rental market, and the effect of housing costs on our ability to attract and retain college graduates. We look forward to her insights on how we can make our technical assistance and financing programs even more effective in addressing the state’s housing needs.”
About MHP: MHP is a self-supporting public nonprofit organization that works to increase the supply of affordable housing across the Commonwealth. MHP supports communities, housing authorities and nonprofits during the early stages of affordable housing development, uses private sources of capital to provide long-term financing for multifamily housing and partners with lenders all over Massachusetts to offer ONE Mortgage, the state’s most affordable program for first-time homebuyers. Since 1990, MHP has provided support and technical assistance in over 300 communities, has made over $1 billion in loans and commitments for the financing of 22,000 apartments and has helped over 18,600 low- and moderate-income families purchase their first home.