Housing Headlines

MEDWAY --- If two housing proposals get the necessary permits and funding, it could raise Medway's supply of affordable housing from five to seven percent, estimates Doug Haven, the town's housing coordinator. One of those proposals - MetroWest Collaborative's Glen Brook Way - awaits word on state funding for 48 senior units, but it has already received a commitment for of $1 million in local funds from Medway.

BOSTON --- Vacant for 40 years but once a site for tenement housing, a bakery, a tin shop and the Crossroads Tavern, the empty lot at 61 Heath St. is now being redeveloped into 47 mixed-income apartments by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Back of the Hill CDC. The bulk of the financing is being provided through a $9.4 million tax-exempt bond issued by MassDevelopment and purchased by Eastern Bank, according to a recent MassDevelopment press release.

HANOVER --- With the construction of a new school and rehab of another school expected to make the Sylvester School obsolete by 2019, the Town of Hanover in April issued a Request for Proposal back in April in hopes of seeing the school redeveloped into housing. Three months later, the redevelopment committee announced that Traggorth Companies LLC was the only respondent, proposing to redevelop the school into 29 one- and two-bedroom mixed-income apartments.

GLOUCESTER --- After 11 meetings and over a year of discussions, the planning board has OK'd the $70 million mixed-use redevelopment of the Fuller School, a key step in a development team's bid to redevelop the property with 200 mixed-income apartments, 26,000 square feet of retail and a new Cape Ann YMCA. The developers - Cape Ann YMCA, Windover Development, Sam Park & Company and the Dolben Company - now must get city council's OK for a special permit to develop the site.

WORCESTER --- With the number of chronically homeless estimated to have jumped from 60 to 100 people in the last year, a homeless task force assembled by City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. has released a plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan calls for $4 to $6 million to be invested in housing production and supportive services so that the city can shift away from a shelter system to a "housing first" model. Augustus said the city's homeless population increased from effectively zero in 2011 because "we put a plan in place but didn't have a plan to stay on top of it." He blamed the failure on a lack of affordable one-bedroom apartments, federal stimulus money for homeless prevention which dried up, a shortage in behavioral health staffing due to the opioid crisis, and under-utilized medicaid benefits for housing.

NORTH TRURO --- Two years after the town placed a stop-work order on campground owners for clearing 11 acres to expand sewage collection, company has unveiled plans that call for subdividing 32 acres and constructing 11 homes and 56 duplexes. With the two sides currently in court over the septic issue, Adventure Bound Camping Resorts attorney Don Nagle unveiled the plan at a June planning board meeting.