Behavioral Health Feasibility Study in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about behavioral health and addiction treatment lending in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

Behavioral health loans in Boston at a glance

Boston reports FY2017 to FY2026 approvals: 27 behavioral health loans, $16.3 million gross. Boston, on behavioral health loans, holds place 8 of 218 among areas. Inside Boston, behavioral health places 19 of 39. Boston's quotient is 0.96x: behavioral health below the national share. Boston counties lie in MA and NH.

Boston loan sizes and mix

Boston shows half its loans at or under $350,000, with the middle half spanning $63,250 up to $836,000. Boston stands at 1.17x against the national class median. Boston loans run above the national middle. Boston has 21 SBA 7(a) loans. Boston has 6 SBA 504 loans. Boston 504 loans fund property and equipment. In Boston, 7(a) adds working capital or acquisitions. Boston prints no franchise share. Too few Boston loans support one. Boston loans run larger. Boston borrowers carry a heavier payment, which Boston studies test.

Boston loan holders and counties

Boston SBA 7(a) holder: 8 loans, $1.4 million, Eastern Bank. Listed Boston names are current holders, per SBA. Boston rows speak to files, not requirements. Boston borrowers see holders, not lenders. Boston, county by county: 10 in Norfolk County, MA, and 6 in Rockingham County, NH.

Boston floors, limits and yearly record

Boston years print only in part. FY2023 brings Boston 0 loans, $0. Other Boston years stay blank on thin counts. Boston blanks are silence, never zero, and Boston treats FY2026 as complete. Floors in Boston follow Loan Analytics' own rule. The Boston cohort holds fewer than 30 loans. Boston disbursements cover FY2017 to FY2021. No Boston cancellation floor prints. No Boston charge-off floor prints either. Boston's blank floor is no zero. Boston borrowers learn little from it. Any Boston rate that prints is a floor. Boston follows July 2023 boundaries. Boston places loans by project county. Boston drops loans lacking a placeable county. Boston note: Behavioral health and addiction treatment share the code, so the two cannot be told apart in Boston.

Boston: what a study must prove

Boston behavioral health requests start from the $350,000 median, a first yardstick in Boston. A behavioral health study in Boston starts with licensing and the service model, since each program type has its own rules and staffing. In Boston, referral sources and payer mix decide census or session volume, so the study models both before testing coverage. A Boston lender will ask for clinician staffing plans, because hiring is often the slowest step in opening a program. Daniel Smith, MAI, signs each Boston study. Boston demand and cost come first. In Boston, coverage follows, then the appraisal. No Boston approval is promised by any study.

SBA behavioral health and addiction treatment loans in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY202627
Gross dollars approved$16.3 million
Median loan$350,000
Middle half of loans, from$63,250
Middle half of loans, to$836,000
SBA 7(a) loans21
SBA 504 loans6
Franchise share of loanswithheld
Rank among metro and micro areas for behavioral health and addiction treatment loans8 of 218
Rank of behavioral health and addiction treatment among the classes in this area19 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)0.96x
Median loan against the national median for the class1.17x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)not reported: fewer than 30 loans in the cohort
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)withheld

Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.

SBA behavioral health and addiction treatment loans approved in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, by fiscal year

00.20.40.60.81FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2023: 0
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY2017withheldwithheld
FY2018withheldwithheld
FY2019withheldwithheld
FY2020withheldwithheld
FY2021withheldwithheld
FY2022withheldwithheld
FY20230$0
FY2024withheldwithheld
FY2025withheldwithheld
FY2026withheldwithheld

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Eastern Bank8$1.4 million

Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.

Where the loans are, by county

CountyLoans
Norfolk County, MA10
Rockingham County, NH6

Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.

Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.

Mental health and addiction treatment centers share their industry codes and cannot be separated.

Shared code: Behavioral health and addiction treatment share both codes.

A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-14460-C23.

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a behavioral health and addiction treatment project in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.

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