Sr. Margaret Lanen has spent most of her career advocating for affordable housing, including her work on the first board of directors of what is now known as South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Today, Sr. Margaret, 82 years young, continues her affordable housing work with the West Broadway Task Force and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. In April, a rally was held at West Broadway requesting an increase in funding of the state budget for state-owned public housing.

Sr. Margaret, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, became part of the St. Vincent’s Neighborhood Group when she began working full time for the parish in 1980. At their monthly meetings, “housing kept coming up all the time,” Sr. Margaret said, noting that homeowners were getting letters from people looking to buy their houses and worried about what was going to happen to the neighborhood.

The group decided it really needed a more formal way to be involved in housing. Bob Costello, who was president of the neighborhood group, with the support of eight other South Boston neighbors, founded South Boston Community Housing, Inc. in 1983. Sr. Margaret became secretary of the nonprofit organization.

South Boston Community Housing’s first effort involved a school in Andrew Square that was being turned into housing. The group wrote a funding proposal for that project. From the beginning, the newly formed nonprofit was challenged. At an open meeting, people attacked the group, identifying it with the church and were critical of why the church was involved in housing. “It became a real challenge,” she said, noting that even though the nonprofit had a good possibility of getting funding, they withdrew from that project.

Undeterred, they kept going and in 1989, Monsignor Lyons Homes, 10 units of affordable housing, was the organization’s first project to get funded. While Sr. Margaret called that first project wonderful, the one that stood out to her was the 34-unit Fr. Walter Martin Co-op in 1993. “It was such a sign of hope,” she said. “We had a lot of difficulty getting funding from a bank, because co-ops were not popular at the time, but eventually we did.”

According to Sr. Margaret, another highlight was Castle Cove, a project Bob Costello held near to his heart. The property was the former Boston Beer Factory. Bob had his eye on that site for years as a place for low-income elderly folks. Now there are 65 apartments for people ages 62 and over.

South Boston Community Housing became South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation in 1998 to better reflect the organization’s neighborhood revitalization activities.

Sr. Margaret moved to the area in 1975. “I know how difficult it was for people who lived here,” she said. “Housing was such a premium.” 

The Sisters of Notre Dame had a Justice and Peace Committee meeting every month and there were different groups the Sisters could join. Sr. Margaret joined the housing group.

She recalled her work on the committee creating a newsletter that featured excerpts from Boston Globe articles about people being pushed out of their homes and what was happening around the state. “I would say my interest really developed from that.”

In addition to her work in housing, Sr. Margaret was a teacher in Lynn, Dorchester, and North Dartmouth before teaching in South Boston at Cardinal Cushing High School and the Notre Dame Education Center. She was also involved at Julie’s Family Learning Program.

As for the future of housing in South Boston, Sr. Margaret wishes there was more interaction between all parties. “There has been a surge of young professionals and empty-nesters who choose to live here. And I wish that people would see the need for adequate housing as a basic human right.”

Sr. Margaret is grateful to all the folks who are willing to work for affordable housing at South Boston NDC. “It has developed into a very strong group, a leadership group here in South Boston. Much good does happen and so it's like it was a seed planted and it has really grown.”