Tony Richards is the Vice President of Equitable Business Development at Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MassHousing), where he strategically focuses on the equitable production of affordable housing, with an emphasis on supporting socially and economically disadvantaged developers. He oversees a suite of soft debt subsidy programs that develop and preserve affordable housing including financing homeownership production for moderate-income households, renovation of small-scale rental properties in disinvested areas and capital improvement grants to support the creation and preservation of affordable sober housing.
The Equitable Business Development Division under Tony’s leadership has spearheaded the development of the Equitable Developers Fund, which will diversify the state’s housing delivery system by providing enterprise level financing and technical assistance to active developers from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds and communities. The fund is the largest publicly led financing program of its kind in the country.
In addition, Tony also leads Government Affairs including innovative affordable housing policy tools and Diverse Business Engagement that engages minority- and women-owned enterprises, collaborating with agency borrowers to meet construction and property management spend goals across multiple categories.
Tony was appointed by Governor Maura Healey as Co-Chair of the Governor’s Black Empowerment Council. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Suffolk University and a Bachelor’s degree from Clark Atlanta University.
Tony Richards
Tony joined us in September 2024 after joining us on-campus for Affordable Housing Essentials: How to Design, Develop, & Finance Properties Growing Cities Need. Following his experience, we asked him a few questions about what learning at Harvard was like:
Why did you choose to sign up for this program and how was your experience in it?
I signed up for this program because I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of affordable housing strategies and how they can be applied in different settings. My experience in the course has been insightful, especially learning from others in the field and the real-life case studies.
Your role focuses on bringing net new real estate developers into the marketplace to drive more equitable market outcomes. What role does a program such as this one play in your work, and how do you plan to apply what you’ve learned?
This program has introduced new approaches to supporting emerging developers and affordable housing projects, including leveraging what the professor highlighted as “Other People’s Money” (OPM).
“I plan to apply what I’ve learned by adapting these proven principles to meet the specific needs of local communities, particularly in areas where undercapitalized developers face significant challenges to access resources and opportunities.”
The program included participants from 8 different countries and 14 US states – what did you learn about how housing is organized globally that you didn’t know before?
I learned that while housing challenges are similar around the world, like affordability and access, the way policies and financing are structured can vary a lot. The breakout sessions highlighted leaders from various countries share their best practices on how to tackle these issues, which gave me new ideas on how to adapt certain practices here.
