Housing Headlines

SWAMPSCOTT -- B'nai B'rith Housing's plans to turn a former elementary school into 38 units of affordable senior housing took another step forward recently as the Swampscott Planning Board recommended favorable action on the developer's plan, a key approval in the developer's request to get a Ch. 40B comprehensive land use permit from the town's Zoning Board of Appeals.

FALMOUTH --- The controversial 104-unit Lyberty Heights housing proposal for Main Street has added an additional twist to its already lengthy history of contentious hearings and two legal challenges as voters at fall Town Meeting will now get to vote on whether to prevent the ZBA-approved project by purchasing or taking the land by eminent domain.

ORANGE --- As part of its $72 million effort to create and preserve some 2,000 units across the state, the Baker-Polito Administration has announced a funding award to the Schochet Companies of Braintree for the rehabilitation of the 114-unit Pine Crest and 120-unit King James affordable housing complexes in Orange.

FALMOUTH --- In a Zoning Board of Appeals hearing to consider a plan by two local developers to build 20 apartments in the neighborhood where they live, other residents asked whether the five affordable units the 40B comprehensive land use permit would allow would attract Section 8 voucher holders, pit bull owners, smokers and crime. In response, zoning board member Kimberly A. Bielan took issue with some of the neighbor’s comments. “Personally, I think it is a little offensive to say, ‘Is this Section 8 housing? Do we have to keep our eye out the window?’” she said. “These people are people who deserve housing. They’re hardworking. A lot of people are teachers… They’re no different than the other people who would buy property next to your house.”

BOSTON – The Baker-Polito Administration has awarded the inaugural $2.2 million round of Community Scale Housing Initiative awards, advancing the development and construction of 36 new affordable rental housing units in Arlington, Norwell, and West Tisbury.

BOSTON --- Increasingly, talk on the street indicates that mass evictions - known as a building clearout - are on the rise in red-hot real estate neighborhoods in East Boston, Roxbury and Dorchester, as investors continue to pounce on small multifamily buildings, buy them, evict tenants and do substantial renovations so they can sell them or jack up rents. It's hard to quantify just how much this is happening as the City of Boston does not track this activity. Activists are pushing for laws that would require more notice while the city is trying to create more affordable housing so renters aren't pushed from neighborhoods.