Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- Data showing that rents in older Hub properties are down 4 percent is a clear sign that Mayor Marty Walsh's goal of building 53,000 new housing units is working to reduce rents, writes the Boston Globe in a recent editorial.

HAMILTON --- Fourteen months into an agreement between the town and Harborlights Community Partners agreed to find a site for affordable housing, the nonprofit is no closer to breaking ground due to resident push back, an impasse that has caused the town's housing trust to weigh its future and the nonprofit to consider a larger project even though it may not be what the community ideally wants.

WORCESTER --- With the notorious downtown five-story Albion rooming house seeming to have stabilized under new Michael O'Rourke, the License Commission has OK'd the new owner's request to add four rooms, which would push the number of rooms to 72 and the number of residents from 88 to 100. O'Rourke's lawyer told the commission that the plans to create the four more rooms have been presented to the city's building department, and the department is prepared to approve them.

TRURO --- Prompted by Town Meeting's OK, a visit by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and the Baker Administration's interest in seeing vacant state land be put to use, the town is moving forward with plans to by a 3.91 acre parcel of land near the Rt. 6 off ramp in North Truro so it can be developed into year-round affordable housing.

NATICK --- Calling it a "terrific project" that will have minimal impacts on traffic and adding children to the schools while yielding revenue for the town, the NatickPlanning Board has OK'd Newton-based National Development's plan to convert the former Sam's Club retail site on Rt. 9 and Speen Street into a 135-room hotel and 164 apartments for seniors 62 and older.

SOMERVILLE --- In line with a 2015 report commissioned by the city that rising property values are making the city too expensive for many longtime lower- and middle-income residents, renters at a 25-unit brick building near Davis Square are complaining that the new owner has initiated steep rate hikes, disruptive construction work and eviction notices.