April 10, 2026 By Jack Falvey, Chair, Hingham Affordable Housing Trust and Member, Lincoln Apartments LLC Board of Managers
The Lincoln School Apartments are a Town-owned 60-unit affordable rental community for seniors and those with disabilities located at the corner of Central and Elm Streets near downtown Hingham. Article 23 of the 2026 Town Meeting Warrant asks the Town to authorize but not require the Select Board to convey the Lincoln School Apartments while ensuring their continued use as affordable housing for seniors and persons with disabilities. The Select Board, Advisory Committee, Hingham Affordable Housing Trust, and Lincoln Apartments LLC Board of Managers all unanimously support this article.
The warrant article seeks to advance three separate and important Town goals.
First, the Lincoln School Apartments need, and cannot currently afford, major near-term capital improvements. The building consists of the original 114-year-old Lincoln School structure and an addition built in the early 1980s after the Town sold the property to the Benedictine Fathers for conversion to affordable housing. The building needs a complete restoration of the brick and mortar façade of the original school, repairs and replacement of portions of its roof, a new HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) system throughout, and extensive interior renovations. The 60 units on five floors are currently served by a single elevator, and for health and safety reasons, the building should have a second one. These improvements are expected to cost from $5 – $10 million; the LSA currently has $2 million in reserves.
Second, in the 18 years since the Town bought this property from the Benedictine Fathers, the Town has come to understand that it lacks the expertise and resources needed to own and run a large residential development effectively and cost-efficiently. No other town in Massachusetts owns a large residential housing development such as the Lincoln School Apartments. Rather, such developments typically are owned and operated by housing authorities or by private (including nonprofit) owners. The volunteer Board of Managers and Town staff, which oversee the outside management company, have been stretched to stay on top of managing and maintaining the aging facility. Further, given applicable public-contracting requirements, every maintenance or improvement project is far more expensive and slower for the Town than it would be for a private owner. The Town has had to step in twice (in 2013 and 2021) to lend additional money to fund the property’s replacement reserves, adding over $1.2 million to the purchase debt that is being repaid over time from LSA’s rental revenues.
Third, the Town needs more affordable housing. The Select Board and Affordable Housing Trust want to evaluate expansion of the Lincoln School Apartments to help meet that need. The Town’s 2021 Master Plan – the strategic blueprint that guides the Town’s decision-making – identifies affordable housing as one of seven Town priorities. It specifically directs the Affordable Housing Trust to add 50 additional affordable homes during the current decade. The Trust, with Town staff, has been working hard over the last five years to buy, renovate, and sell individual homes meeting affordability guidelines. But we will only approach the Master Plan’s goal by creating or adding to a multi-family development. In conversations with the Town over several years, the Lincoln School Apartments have repeatedly been identified as the best (and in fact only) near-term opportunity for added multi-family affordable homes. And its location is excellent for seniors, given its proximity to the shops, places of worship, and other resources of downtown Hingham.
In recent months, the Affordable Housing Trust and Board of Managers have met several times with Lincoln School Apartments residents and neighbors to discuss the proposed warrant article and hear concerns. The recommended motion approved by the Advisory Committee includes three restrictions that address the core concerns raised in those meetings.
First, if the Select Board does determine to go ahead with a disposition, the deed must include a restriction ensuring future affordability. Second, in response to neighbors’ concerns about potential increases in activity and/or traffic, it requires a deed restriction in any conveyance limiting occupancy to seniors and those with disabilities, to ensure that the community and the neighborhood retain their current character. And third, in response to neighbors’ concerns about size, it also requires a deed restriction limiting building-to-lot coverage to 30% of the two-acre parcel – the same limit that the Town voted back in 1979 when it originally sold the property to the Benedictine Fathers. In other words, notwithstanding the affordability crisis that has snowballed in recent decades, neighbors would be assured of the same building-size limit that satisfied the Town 47 years ago. That size restriction should remain binding on a future owner even if the Town were to fall below the 10% threshold for affordable homes under the Chapter 40B statute. And the risk of falling below that 10% threshold (the Town is currently at 10.3%) diminishes substantially if additional units are built at Lincoln School.
If the Warrant article passes, the Select Board would proceed with a Request for Proposals process structured to identify purchasers with strong track records for building and managing excellent affordable housing here in Massachusetts. Our elected Select Board would proceed with a transaction only after public meetings and a public procurement process and only if there is a proposal that fully meets the above and other key Town priorities. The volunteer boards of the Affordable Housing Trust and Lincoln Apartments Board of Managers unanimously support this article. We believe it will improve the quality of life for current residents and increase safe, accessible, and affordable housing opportunities here in Hingham.
The Affordable Housing Trust plans to post on its website soon a “Frequently Asked Questions” document that provides further background relevant to Article 23.