Housing Headlines

NANTUCKET --- While saying they have nothing against affordable housing in theory, residents near a 64-unit housing proposal off Fairgrounds Road have appealed the planning board's OK in state Land Court.

WORCESTER --- City officials estimate approximately 60 to 80 families from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico are living in Worcester hotels, living from month to month on FEMA assistance. Reporter Bill Shaner talks to one of them, who went from Puerto Rico to Buffalo to Worcester, and now is waiting for her homeland to get back to normal so she can return.

BOSTON --- After four years of planning - which included a delay over what to do with historic buildings on the property - WinnCompanies and Brighton Marine Health Center have closed on $43 million in financing and are set to begin construction on a 102-unit apartment building for lower- and middle-income veterans at the health center's campus on Commonwealth Ave. in Brighton.

BOSTON --- The Pay for Success Initiative is looking to expand statewide after reporting that 92 percent of the 656 chronically homeless people it housed stayed in housing after one year. Pay for Success is a partnership which includes the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Santander Bank and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. Under the program, philanthropic groups paid upfront for services to house and help the homeless, and the state reimbursed them once the program was proven successful. Advocates say that in addition to keeping a high percentage of homeless housed, the program cut back on emergency room and hospital visits, saving the state about $2.2 million.

FRAMINGHAM --- The city will be forming an ad hoc committee that will work to make recommendations on Airbnb regulations after it took 30 police to break up a 200-person party at a wooded suburban home that was rented through Airbnb by a former Framingham State University student who was celebrating his 21st birthday.

CHATHAM --- Conscious of the number of workers who commute to town every day from off the Cape, a coalition of residents and town officials have been meeting for six months in an effort to create a multi-pronged strategy to add more affordable housing.