Harvard has donated the use of a 13-acre site near the Medical School for construction of an 858-unit mixed-income housing development, financed by the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MHFA).

Under the new agreement, Harvard will deed over the land to a "development entity" composed of Roxbury Tenants of Harvard (RTH) members, independent developer H. Ralph Taylor and general contractor George Macomber.

"The transaction will take the form of a leasehold, which means, essentially, that the land is sold for a 40-year period. After 40 years, the University will have an option to re-purchase it," Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs, said yesterday.

RTH has chosen the Hunneman Corporation to assume management of the housing development once it is occupied. John Sharratt Associates, Inc. will be the architect for the development, with Samuel Glaser and Partners as associate architect.

Construction will probably begin this fall after final plans have been approved by MHFA, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and various city and state agencies.

Plans call for completion of the development by the spring of 1977, but tenants will move into units as they are completed, a Harvard spokesman said yesterday. Of the 858 units, 215 will be available for low-income families, 285 for middle-income families, and the remaining 358 units will be rented at market rate.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will subsidize the 500 lower-and middle-income units.

"I think this is the first time an educational institution like Harvard has cooperated with a tenants' group," Robert Parks, president of RTH, said last week.

"There has been a lot of hard work by the community to reach this point," Parks added.

RTH "took the lead on getting negotiations started to limit institutional expansion to a certain area," Parks said.

Harvard's original plans called for construction on only part of the 10-acre site formerly occupied by the Convent of the Good Shepherd, which is now a parking lot, Moulton said yesterday.

The development site was then extended to include the full ten acres, and three acres of adjacent Harvard-owned property was added to make up the full 13 acres, Moulton added