Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- At a community meeting aimed to get resident feedback on eight city-owned lots that are being considered for development, residents indicate there's been enough development, enough gentrification and if any more development happens, they want it to be affordable housing. The publicly owned lots under consideration are in an area known as the Washington Park Urban Triangle. Roxbury has more vacant land than any other neighborhood in the city due in part to past urban renewal programs that allowed the then Boston Redevelopment Authority to acquire many parcels.

BOSTON --- In a story that's oft-repeated in the South End and Chinatown, approximately 14 people who live in a four-story brick house in the South End stand to lose their homes if a local investor follows through with a bid to buy the property for $2 million from a family that's owned the building for 30 years.

BOSTON --- Fire officials say the cause of last month's six-alarm fire that tore through Dorchester's nearly complete 83-unit Treadmark building was caused by an improperly installed exhaust pipe from basement generator that was being tested at the time the fire broke out. Fire officials also expressed repeated concern that it took 90 minutes for workers on the scene to call in the fire.

NEEDHAM --- In the wake of an arrest of a housing authority resident in connection with the murder of an elderly neighbor, the Needham Housing Authority has told residents it is now considering extending its background check procedures to include review of out-of-state records, something it says it's currently not required to do.

EASTON --- After town selectmen - who function as the rent control authority - declined a request to raise rents because owners had not demonstrated promised improvements after the last rent increase, Morgan Management it will discontinue operations at its Easton Mobile Home Park by 2019. In a letter to residents and the town, the company said residents had turned down an opportunity to buy the property. The letter also said the company is planning to sell all its Massachusetts mobile home parks.

WALTHAM --- Renewing a theme from her campaign, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy is questioning the need for more multifamily complexes and the City Council's approval of a 260-unit mostly wood frame apartment building that burned to the ground over the weekend, weeks before it was scheduled to open. The mayor said, “Construction by wood frame is idiotic. It’s insane.”