
Deborah Crossley calls herself a “semi-retired architect,” but she is still an extremely busy and involved woman. One of Mainstay Supportive Housing and Home Care’s newest board members, Crossley has a passion for housing and spent 14 years as a Newton City Councilor and chaired the Council’s Zoning and Planning committee for her last four years. She was recently confirmed as an Associate Member of the Newton Zoning Board of Appeals. She traces her interest in housing back to her college years.
“From the time that I was in architectural school, when I talk to people about housing, the fundamental piece is that all people require shelter,” said Crossley. “Architecture is part social art and social science as well as building science. When someone doesn’t have a home, nothing else matters and everything else is hard.”
Crossley says her home-based architectural practice has been primarily residential, including new homes and small multi-family mixed income housing projects. Today, many of her projects center around “aging in place” renovations so that her clients can remain in the homes they love as they enter their senior years.
Many of her projects laid the foundation for her current work on Mainstay’s board. Those include accessibility upgrades for the Barry Price Rehabilitation Center, which provides staffed housing and services in Newton and Brookline for small groups of adults who have cognitive and/or physical challenges. She also helped to upgrade properties run by Specialized Housing in Brookline and for NWW (now Pathways to Possible) which provides similar supportive housing in Newton, Wellesley and Weston.
“The two policy items that motivate me the most are energy policy and housing,” said Crossley. “They have to do with how we take care of what we have and planning wisely for the future. Elected officials are supposed to be good stewards of the built and natural environment that we inhabit. City leaders should have their eye on the future and what is sustainable physically and fiscally.”
That statement may perfectly sum up Crossley’s legacy as a Newton City Councilor. She cites helping to revamp the city’s water and sewer systems as one of her proudest accomplishments, along with assisting in the effort to bring the city into compliance with the state’s MBTA Communities Act, which mandates that municipalities allow multi-family housing to be developed by-right within a half mile of transit stations.
The mother of two and grandmother of one has been married to her husband Phil for 43 years. She is currently volunteering as a steering committee member for the group Newton for Everyone. “We formed in early 2024,” said Crossley. “We have put on two events in the city focusing on topics around the need for and desirability of more diverse housing, and to try to debunk some of the mythology. Our objective is to educate the electorate on what the needs are. If we don’t do something, we are preventing the next generation from moving into our city.”
Crossley says her goals for working with Mainstay include helping the organization become better known within the Newton community. “I have been here for 40 years,” said Crossley. “Although the City Council changed dramatically in the last election, every candidate maintained that they care about affordable and accessible housing. There is a core group here who mean what they say, and they walk the walk. My goal is to work with them to help Mainstay continue to grow in Newton to help fill that need.”