History

The Malden Redevelopment Authority (MRA) was incorporated and received its Certificate of Organization on October 8, 1958. The agency was formed at the request of the Mayor and the City Council at the suggestion of Malden's League of Women Voters to become the city's urban renewal agency and to carry out the provisions of the newly created federal urban renewal program.

From 1958 through 1972 the agency carried out four federally funded and one state funded urban renewal projects and became one of the most successful and currently longstanding redevelopment authorities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During its urban renewal days and through its eminent domain activities, the MRA has taken over 400 properties within the city of Malden including businesses, churches, synagogues and private homes. One of the outstanding facts about that long history and that number of takings is that the agency, because of the professional way it conducted its activities and the fair and impartial way in which it carried out the urban renewal mandates, there was very little of the negative reaction to the urban renewal program here in the City of Malden as was experienced in other cities throughout Massachusetts and the United States.

As a result of the urban renewal efforts, Malden was able to clear dilapidated, blighted properties throughout the city and over a twenty year period, almost completely rebuilt its industrial and commercial base which at the time was over one hundred years old.

The MRA in the early 1960's expanded its role to include housing rehabilitation and was one of the first cities in the east to become involved in HUD's Home Improvement Loan Program then known as the HUD Section 312 Program. That tradition and focus on improving Malden's neighborhoods, not by clearance and demolition, but rather through investment and upkeep improved the city's most important infrastructure, its housing stock, and has continued for the past 45 years. Housing rehabilitation was and remains one of the primary focuses of the agency.

When the federal urban renewal program was eliminated at the end of 1972, many redevelopment authorities ceased to exist. However, because of the MRA's reputation within the city of Malden as an agency capable of carrying out multiple tasks and especially the agency's expertise in collecting, managing and expending federal and state funds, the MRA was named as administrators of the newly created Community Development Block Grant program. Because of the experienced professional staff that populated the agency at the time, the transition from an urban renewal agency into a community development agency was smooth and seamless.

Since 1975, the agency has administered the city's Community Development Block Grant program and been responsible for the expenditure of over $60 million in federal funds which have been used to improve the city's infrastructure, neighborhoods, and provide for the social well being of its low and moderate income residents.

In the early 1990's when the U. S. Department of Urban Development added the HOME Program and so created a funding source for the creation of affordable housing, the MRA formed, and became the "representative member", of the North Suburban Consortium, a joint venture between Malden, Medford, Everett, Arlington, Revere, Melrose, Chelsea and Winthrop to create affordable housing. That program has brought in, and this agency has been responsible for the expenditure of an additional $15 million in federal funds, earmarked for the creation of affordable housing within the seven city jurisdiction.

In addition to the urban renewal, community development and HOME experiences, the MRA became proficient at and secured some $8 million in Federal Lead Paint Abatement Program and in so doing became one of the premier lead paint removal agencies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The funds were targeted, applied for and received to augment the city and the Malden Redevelopment Authority's ongoing efforts to improve the safety and livability of the housing stock within the city.

There are many reasons the agency has prospered and continued to be designated as the city's community development and economic development agencies because of the vast experience of its staff and the lack of turnover at the staff level. In the agency's 49 year history, there have been only five directors, and in fact the Malden Redevelopment Authority was one of the first agencies anywhere to hire a female executive director who did an excellent job in shepherding the agency through its formative years.

The MRA has won many regional and national awards for innovative programs and continues to evolve as an agency and a business. In addition to its current duties, the agency is also the creator, owner and administrator of the city of Malden's Off-Street Parking Program with over 2000 parking spaces in the downtown area under its control. The parking is used as a tool to create economic development in the downtown the redevelopment of which is one of the agencies main goals.