Jeff Sacks is a leading community development attorney. His clients include large community development corporations, senior housing providers and housing authorities as well as a variety of large institutional service providers. He often represents nonprofit organizations that are embarking on major real estate projects that allow their organizations to deliver their services in new and innovative ways.
I assist my clients in using federal low-income housing and historic tax credits to develop affordable housing and mixed-use developments. Given the multiple funding sources necessary to complete any project today including federal resources from HUD as well as state and local funds, I work with our developer clients to assure that all of these funders work together to allow for the successful completion of these projects with the most efficient deal structure.
Some of my largest and most complex projects have involved substantial investments in very poor communities utilizing the new markets tax credit program. These projects, which have included major new urban medical centers, a supercomputing project as well as smaller educational facilities, can be the catalyst for additional neighborhood investment and substantial job creation.
I have worked with a range of public housing authorities in the transformation of some of the most outdated public housing projects in the Commonwealth into new and vital communities that continue to serve their low-income residents. I served as a public housing authority commissioner for more than twenty years, and in 2013 worked on new legislation in Massachusetts to modernize and reform the Commonwealth’s public housing system.
Much of my work involves advising nonprofit boards of directors about the most efficient and effective legal and financial approaches to fulfilling their corporate missions. A central part of my work is framing the legal options and documentation to boards of directors.
I served as the first chair of the Newton Community Preservation Committee and have worked with that program for more than ten years. This unique state and local partnership provides funding exclusively for community housing, open space preservation, historic preservation and recreation facilities in cities and towns across the Commonwealth.
I am working on new types of joint ventures among nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies to improve the delivery of housing and other community services. In a period of dwindling direct government support for community development activities, consolidation of services and the creation of new service delivery models are crucial with organizations working together in new ways.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | August 22, 2019
Boston Affordable Housing and Real Estate partner Jeff Sacks wrote this contributed article analyzing a ruling by the Appellate Tax Board on the proper method of determining real estate taxes for senior living facilities that use an entry fee model. Boston law clerk Thomas Jackson contributed to the article.
Wicked Local Provincetown | March 20, 2019
Boston Affordable Housing & Real Estate partner Jeff Sacks is quoted in this article about a proposed affordable housing development in Wellfleet.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | December 26, 2018
Boston Affordable Housing & Real Estate partner Jeff Sacks is quoted in this article on the ability of municipal planning agencies to respond to possible foreclosure of affordable housing properties.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly | August 15, 2018
Boston Affordable Housing & Real Estate partner Jeff Sacks wrote this contributed article analyzing a recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that “likely will lead to greater scrutiny of all historic preservation projects involving church properties.”
Yale Law School, J.D.
Brown University, B.A.
Massachusetts
Jeffrey was selected, through a peer-review survey, for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2020 in the field of Real Estate Law. Jeffrey has been listed in Best Lawyers since 2012.
Additionally, Jeff has been recognized as a “New England Super Lawyer” in Real Estate based on a peer-review survey by Boston Magazine (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2012).
Jeff Sacks served as a commissioner of the Newton Housing Authority from 1992 to 2014, and also served on Governor Deval Patrick’s Public Housing Reform Commission. He serves on DHCD’s Public Housing Advisory Committee, and as a director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, and the Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness. Mr. Sacks is also a director of the statewide Massachusetts Community Preservation Coalition.
