By
Robert O’Malley
John T. Eller, senior vice president and director of the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Boston’s (the Bank) Housing and Community
Investment Department, retired July 14 after serving more than 15
years at the Bank.
Mr. Eller, along with former housing director David Parish, has been a key builder
of the Bank’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP) since its inception.
Widely known and admired both inside and outside the Bank, Mr. Eller began his
career at the Bank as the AHP was being introduced in 1990. “David Elliott
(former senior vice president at the Bank) and David Parish called me in 1990
to ask if I would provide consulting services to help set up the AHP and do the
scoring,” says Mr. Eller. “In early 1991, they and Mike Jessee (president
and CEO of the Bank) invited me to join the Bank’s staff to help manage
the AHP and grow the department. I will always be grateful for that invitation
and the opportunity to work for the Bank in this capacity.”
Mr. Eller had earlier served as executive director of the Massachusetts Housing
Finance Agency (now MassHousing); director of research and policy for Massachusetts
House speakers David M. Bartley and Thomas W. McGee; and president of Eller and
Associates, a housing consulting firm he founded in 1981.
Mr. Eller’s interest in housing began early in his career. While working
for Speaker Bartley at the State House in the 1970s, he helped craft legislation
that led to some of the state’s most important housing initiatives, including
new resources to assist the state’s fledgling housing finance agency and
passage of Chapter 40B, a measure designed to increase the supply of affordable
housing in communities across the state.
“It was clear from observations and a number of studies that Massachusetts
was struggling with an almost permanent wall around the urban area,” says
Mr. Eller. “It was as if a sign on those walls declared: ‘People
of color are not welcome in the suburbs.’”
“In those days, the politics were not as bitterly partisan as they are
today,” he adds. “Political parties had their differences, but when
it came to issues such as racial isolation and racial and economic injustice,
there was dynamic bipartisan executive and legislative leadership — a determination
to remove those walls.”
Mr. Eller recalls that Chapter 40B passed by only a few votes in the 1970s but
has since become a critical tool to insure that adequate affordable housing is
available in diverse communities across the state. In recent years, the Bank’s
New England Fund has become an important source of funding for member institutions
to finance affordable housing built under Chapter 40B.
“Many changes have been made on how Chapter 40B should work,” he
says. “Many communities have done a solid job of including affordable housing;
some are trying to do so, but others are not. NIMBY (not in my backyard) forces
still oppose housing for local workers, families, the disabled, and many others.
The stated reasons are legion, but the result is the same.”
In his more than 30 years of housing-related work, Mr. Eller has witnessed the
gradual emergence of a model affordable-housing network across New England. “It
is now one of the country’s most mature networks of nonprofits and state
agencies dedicated to addressing the needs of low- and moderate-income people,” says
Mr. Eller.
“The wonderful thing about the affordable-housing community is its closeness,” he
says. “Many people have worked for decades in the field. They have a passion
and sense of mission that this is their life’s work.”
Mr. Eller says the AHP was founded at a critical moment for the affordable-housing
community. The federal government had been reducing Section 8 and other housing
resources while state budget deficits had led to housing cutbacks locally.
“Since the early 1990s,” he says, “the Bank and its members
have been significant providers of capital to support housing across the region
for kids and families — for people working in modest-paying jobs. The AHP
has helped finance 19,591 units since its inception, providing homes for almost
50,000 New Englanders.”
Mr. Eller believes that a key to the AHP’s success has been the Bank’s
dedicated housing staff as well as the members and local housing organizations
that have guided it over the years. “It takes a lot of work by a lot of
people to make that happen,” he says.
“It involves a common heart, sharp skills, and dogged determination in
pursuit of a common mission.”
“The dream and vision we had early on was to make the Bank a credible participant
in this process,” he says. “The Bank’s board, Advisory Council,
senior management, and capable and dedicated staff have enabled it to be far
more than just credible; the Bank is now perceived to be a leader.”
In addition to his work in housing, Mr. Eller over the years has served in many
church-related roles. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, Mr.
Eller accepted a legislative internship at the State House following his graduation
from Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 1969.
“I have always had one foot planted in the life of the church and the other
planted in the field of affordable housing and community development,” he
says. “It has made for some very interesting and challenging days; it has
allowed me to work with many talented and skilled people.”
Mr. Eller says that a challenge throughout his career has been addressing the
notion that large institutions only have their own interests rather than the
interests of the broader community at heart. The question is: “How does
an institution that usually isn’t thought to have a heart behave in a manner
that is just?”
“The AHP has become the heart of the Bank and many other institutions in
the region,” says Mr. Eller. “It will continue to play a major role
in supporting affordable housing throughout the region.”
Although Mr. Eller is retiring from the Bank, he says he plans to stay active
in both housing (as an advocate and consultant) and in the church. “There’s
an old saying,” he says: “Missionaries don’t retire; they just
get called home.” T
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