Housing Headlines

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.

BOSTON --- If you've fallen behind on what's going on in Dudley Square, the Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller will help you catch up. In his latest story, Miller summarizes four projects that are going head and reports that the Boston Planning and Development Agency is seeking bids for three more open parcels in the square, the largest being the site of the former Blair Family Foodland, which is now a parking lot. The RFP put out by the city is seeking a mixed-use, commercial/residential development that could rise between six and 15 stories.

As Gov. Baker's Housing Choice bylaw proposal remains in legislative limbo, other states like New York, Washington and Oregon have been successful in passing measures designed to promote housing construction.

NEWTON --- Despite getting the necessary two-thirds super majority from the 24-member Newton City Council, Northland's plan to turn 26 acres near Route 128 and the Needham line into a mixed-use project with 800 apartments faces another potential test as a local group hopes to collect the necessary signatures within 20 days to force a city-wide referendum.

DORCHESTER --- At a series of community meetings, residents have been asked for feedback on several renovation options for the Fields Corner public library branch, including a five-story mixed-use $33 million proposal that would offer two library floors below three floors of housing with about 33 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments or up to 36 apartments if the sizes of the apartments were reduced to get 12 on each floor.