Housing Headlines

HAMILTON --- The town's attempts to add affordable housing by allowing the nonprofit Harborlight Community Partners to build on a town-owned site continues to meet resistance, as discussions about using the Council on Aging site on Bay Road for housing has drawn concerns from seniors who use the facility. Earlier this year, selectmen voted not to support Harborlight's intentions to apply to the town for a Ch. 40B permit so it could build 108 units at a site it controlled on Longmeadow Way near the high school.

BILLERICA --- With a $15,000 housing planning grant from the Baker-Polito administration, the town can now hire a consultant to do a study on how feasible it is to build affordable housing on land it acquired from the Cabot Corp. for $2 million in 2005. Much of the 40-acre site near the Concord River is wetland but about 15 acres are believed to be buildable, according to Town Manager John Curran.

BOSTON --- In her special report on homeless students in Boston's public schools, reporter Kathleen McKiernan details the homeless journey of two teenagers who slept on a kitchen floor and in a waiting room at a local hospital before landing in a state-funded motel room in Brighton.

BOSTON --- According to a Boston Herald special report, nearly 4,000 students in the Boston public schools are considered homeless, a crisis that school officials and advocates fear will get worse as the city's housing prices continue to rise.

BOSTON --- The second in a series of public meetings was held recently to get resident input about Nuestra Comunidad and Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc.'s plans to build a five-story, 135-unit, mixed-use building in Mattapan Square. The project, which will also include 10,000 square feet of commercial space at ground level, is the largest project proposed in this area in decades.

LEOMINSTER -- Despite the building's shuttered windows and boarded-up doors, the project to convert the former Carter Junior High School into approximately 40 affordable apartments remains on track, according to NewVue Communities Executive Director Marc Dohan.