Housing Headlines

SALEM --- Workforce housing is taking shape as the first major development in town begins to fill with occupants on Main Street with 74 units added.

BOSTON --- Beacon Communities has completed the renovation of Lenox Apartments, a 285-unit affordable housing community in the South End/Lower Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Lenox Apartments comprises 13 buildings and offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The renovation was funded through a mix of state and federal housing and historic tax credits, as well as public and private loans.

WORCESTER --- Worcester should soon be able to offer 90 more affordable housing units in what used to be a hotel, thanks to almost $2 million in federal aid. Worcester Community Housing Resources announced it has received $1.6 million in federal funds to convert a former Quality Inn & Hotel Suites at 50 Oriol Drive in Worcester into permanent supportive housing for homeless people.

BOURNE --- A new housing complex proposed for the site of the historic Keene House in Bourne Village will request Community Preservation Act funding at next month’s Annual Town Meeting to get the 32-unit project underway. The development, proposed for the site of the historic home at 9 Sandwich Road, will seek $80,000 in CPA funds.

GREENFIELD --- Using CPA funds, the Community Preservation Committee has voted in favor of funding the entire $50,000 request for a downtown affordable housing development and the entire $15,000 request from Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity to build an affordable, all-electric one-bedroom home at 184 Petty Plain Road.

LINCOLN --- At one of the longest and most controversial town meetings in recent history, voters on March 23 narrowly approved the Housing Choice Act zoning amendments by a margin of 52% to 48%. The amendment “is not a major change” for the Lincoln Woods and Lincoln Road subdistricts and it “addresses people’s greatest concerns” about commercial space at the mall, said Jonathan Soo, a leader of a citizens’ group that pushed for passage.