Housing Headlines

EASTON --- Citing that the owner had not shown evidence of making any improvements, the Easton Board of Selectmen, which functions as the town's rent control board, denied Morgan Management's request to raise the rent for mobile home owners. Through its lawyer, Morgan has said no rent increase means it will have to close the park or sell it to residents, who are in conversation with a nonprofit to buy the property.

BOSTON --- Mayor Marty Walsh and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano joined other state and local leaders recently to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg House, a new 61-unit affordable apartment complex for seniors that will be connected by a walkway to the Jewish Community for the Elderly's 700-unit Brighton campus. MHP is using its FHA Treasury Risk-Share program to provide $2.2 million in long-term financing.

WELLESLEY --- Northland Residential Corp. has let town officials know that it is no longer contemplating building 12 homes on 12 acres near the Needham line but will instead apply to the town for a Ch. 40B comprehensive land use permit so it can build 44 condominium units, 11 of which will be affordable.

BOSTON --- The Hub's building boom resulted in $55 million being collected for affordable housing in the last fiscal year, as many private developers have opted to pay into the city's Inclusionary Development Program rather than include affordable units in their projects. The sum is $24 million more than what was collected two years ago.

WORCESTER --- The development company that is already constructing 370 units of market rate housing within CitySquare has now put in a proposal to raze the Notre Dame des Canadiens Church and and replace it with a mixed-use development featuring 84 apartments and over 2,000 square feet of retail space.

BOSTON --- The fifth neighborhood informational meeting to brief and hear from residents about plans to redevelop a Mattapan Square MBTA parking lost into a mixed-use, mixed-income development with 135 units was consumed totally with a discussion about how affordable the project would be, causing a sixth meeting to be scheduled in August to go over the design of the building. Nuestra Comunidad Executive Director David Price, whose organization is co-developing the site with the Preservation of Affordable Housing, said the goal of the project is to set as many of the rents as possible at 50 percent of median income, which in Boston is $51,700 for a family of four.