Housing Headlines

CAMBRIDGE ---Rising up across the street from Fresh Pond Reservoir is a six-story project is designed to simultaneously address two problems: affordable housing and climate change. Called Finch Cambridge and developed by Homeowners Rehab Inc., the development will offer 98 affordable apartments and is being designed for "Passive House" certification, the most energy-efficient standard in the world. "This building is a thermos; it's airtight," said Icon Architecture's Michelle Apigian. "It holds temperature no matter what is happening inside the building."

HOLYOKE --- A plan by the Holyoke Housing Authority to develop 66 apartments and 24 homeownership units in South Holyoke received a significant boost recently as Gov. Charlie Baker came to the city to announce a $6.56 million MassWorks grant for street improvements. “It was important for us to get this grant because, without it, I don’t think we are able to afford the vertical construction,” said Matthew Mainville, executive director of the Holyoke Housing Authority.

WORCESTER --- December's early snow put an early spotlight on Worcester's homeless situation as the Hotel Grace shelter has been filled beyond capacity, causing City Manager Ed Augustus to request that it expand its hours to provide more time for the city's 1,500 homeless to get out of the cold.

QUINCY --- The local nonprofit that has built a strong reputation building work-force housing and smaller projects for veterans and people with disabilities has another project in mind, this a plan to knock down four homes on Winter Street and replace them with a three-story building and 20 studio apartments. NeighborWorks Southern Mass. unveiled its plans recently and has already scheduled one meeting with neighborhood residents to get their reaction.

LAWRENCE --- The city's planning board recently OK'd three projects that will eventually bring 338 new apartments to the city. Getting OKs were Trinity Financial for the redevelopment of the Mariner Mill on Broadway into 83 apartments; Brady-Sullivan for 176 apartments in the Pacific Mills complex, which is a third phase of a redevelopment that began in 2012; and nonprofit Lawrence Community Works for 79 apartments in two new buildings to be constructed at 20-30 Island St.

BOSTON --- An annual report on a state program that is designed to provide assistance to families in danger of becoming homeless found that Dorchester was the neighborhood in the city that used the program the most, with 599 households receiving a total of $1.5 million. Administered for the state by the nonprofit Metro Housing|Boston, the program - called the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition or RAFT - put out $4.4 million overall in FY2019 and assisted 1,710 families with an average amount of assistance per household at $2,599.