Housing Headlines

QUINCY --- The City Council has struck a deal with FoxRock Properties that clears the way for the developer to build a mixed-use project with 110 affordable apartments near downtown while paying the city $4.25 million to relinquish its ownership rights to the now defunct Quincy Medical Center property, an agreement the city put in place should the property cease to be used for medical purposes. FoxRock has proposed to build 490 units on the hospital site, a plan that residents say is too big for the neighborhood.

In reaction to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's annual report that found that the wage needed to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts is $33, CEO Rachel Heller of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association said, "“Despite recently raising our state minimum wage, it is less than half of what is needed to afford a modest apartment in Massachusetts,” said Heller. “Compared with the rest of the United States, we are the third least affordable state for renters.”

NATICK --- In a wide-ranging address to the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Charlie Baker continued to list housing production as one of his administration's top priorities, urging passage of his Housing Choice legislation as a step that's needed to spur housing growth and help the state reach the goal Baker has set of producing 135,000 new units by 2025. “Basically, what we are trying to do is get back into the business of doing housing production in Massachusetts,” Baker said. “We used to build 30,000 units of housing every single year for 50 years, until the ’90s. Then that number fell to around 8,000 to 10,000 units a year.”

AMHERST --- In a strongly-worded editorial, the Hampshire Gazette criticizes a group of about 50 residents for trying to slow the approval process for 28 low-income individuals making between $18,000 and $49,000 per year. The editorial focused on a phrase in a letter from residents in which residents insist they are not saying "not in our backyard." The editorial states "that's exactly what these residents are saying." It then points to "common NIMBY" arguments the residents are using to try to reduce the size of the project.

BOSTON --- Stating that managing its building has become a distraction from its core mission, Boston's YWCA is putting its 13-story building on Clarendon Street in the Back Bay up for sale. Renovated in 2000 due in part to a loan from MHP, the building features 118 apartments - 79 affordable - as well as a variety of other mixed uses, including the Lyric Stage Theater and the Snowden International public high school. Due to terms of the financing, the affordable housing will remain for approximately 30 years.

NEW YORK --- Calling his choice as "someone with the guts to make changes," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that former Cambridge Housing Authority boss Greg Russ has been picked to lead the embattled New York City Housing Authority, which houses nearly 400,000 people in 316 housing developments. Russ left Cambridge several years ago and has been running the housing authority in Minneapolis.