Housing Headlines

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.

BOSTON --- Dorchester Reporter Editor Bill Forry weighs the pros and cons of a plan to transform the Port Norfolk section into a new complex of condos, hotel rooms and boat slips, and concludes that while he likes the design, the city's planning department must listen to the concerns of the neighborhood and get the developer to scale down the project.

IPSWICH --- The developer of a proposed apartment complex for residents 55 years and older has cut his project from 40 to 32 units while neighbors along the Town Road site will likely be allowed to tie into the new sewer line that will be built to service the new housing.

HARWICH --- In a reversal from usual town concerns that more students will tax municipal budgets, Monomoy School District Superintendent Scott Carpenter told Harwich selectmen that the town and neighboring Chatham should seek ways to boost their affordable housing stock to reverse declining enrollment at the region's elementary schools. "It would behoove our towns to support initiatives that would encourage young families to live and afford our towns," he said.

BOSTON --- The Dorchester Reporter's Jennifer Smith is staying on the story about the UMass Building Authority's efforts to market the 20-acre Bayside parcel to a developer who would build a mixed-use "destination" similar to a “modern-day Harvard Square, New Balance/Boston Landing, Kenmore Square, MIT Volpe Center, etc.” The deadline for public bids has ended and Smith has the 16 development companies that responded.