Housing Headlines

The Cape Community Housing Partnership - a cross-Cape effort to build support for affordable housing among community leaders and residents - has landed a $20,000 grant from the Worthington Campbell Jr. Fund to support efforts to build a better understanding and wider community awareness about the need for housing.

AMHERST --- The ongoing saga of when six affordable apartments are supposed to be available is continuing, with the developer of Presidential Apartments asking that he have until Feb. 18, 2018 to make the six apartments available for income-qualified households. The town maintains that the apartments should have been ready by Sept. 1, 2017 and held a lottery for the apartments, only to discover the units had been rented by the developer's management company. The developer is appealing the town's notice of violation, which calls for a fine of $600 a day starting Oct. 18 for every day the units aren't available.

HAVERHILL --- State and local leaders gathered recently to celebrate the completion of Harbor Place, a gleaming two-building mixed-use development that replaces the long dormant Woolworths business block on Main St. and provides views and access to a new boardwalk and the Merrimack River for the first time in 80 years. Developed by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs in partnership with the Greater Haverhill Foundation, the commercial building features a bank and a UMass Lowell satellite campus while across the courtyard is an apartment building with 80 units of mixed-income housing that are already occupied.

SANDWICH --- The Zoning Board of Appeals has delayed a decision on whether to give the green light to a 30-unit affordable rental housing proposal while it explores the legalities of dividing an existing housing authority comprehensive permit into two parts so that the nonprofit Women's Institute can develop the 30 units on a partial parcel next to the housing authority's existing affordable housing development.

BOSTON --- The Globe's Milton Valencia takes a look at Boston's building boom, which has generated 22,000 units during the Walsh Administration. Of that total,1,682 are restricted to low-income families and 4,062 restricted to middle-income households. The city acknowledges it needs to develop more affordable housing while advocates argue too many units are being built for people who can't afford them and this is causing displacement of minorities in Boston's outlying neighborhoods.

NORTH ATTLEBORO --- The state is looking into reports that some residents in the town's senior housing authority community are bullying and harassing other residents. Letters provided to the newspaper accuse some residents of attempting to trip others with their walkers, spitting in someone’s face and ridiculing others for their disabilities or their everyday actions.