Housing Headlines

BOXBOROUGH --- Based on a steady stream of requests from lower-income residents needing help with rent, the town's housing board and well-being committee has launched a one-year rental assistance pilot program which will use $26,000 in CPA funds to provide rental assistance to six households for one year.

TRURO --- With the town's approval and financial support, Habitat for Humanity is moving forward with its plans to build six affordable homes on two separate Rt. 6 lots even as it works to redesign one of the properties after an abutter filed a legal challenge over concerns about drainage.

LOWELL --- UMass Lowell's $61.5 million purchase of a renovated mill building called Perkins Place is continuing to cause anger residents, who say they are disappointed with reimbursement amounts and the college's denial of giving them more time to move before the property is turned into dorm space.

AMHERST --- Plans by GSX Solutions to build a four-story, 132-unit apartment building on the site of the Amherst Motel on Rt. 9 would require a special permit as the town's planning department has indicated the motel is located in what is now the town's professional research park zone, which prohibits residential uses.

GRAFTON --- A proposed affordable housing development that would include 36 single-family homes on an 18-acre drew criticism from conservationists who said the dense development would fragment and degrade the surrounding wildlife corridor, which includes two popular Grafton Land Trust properties, a community harvest farm and other restricted land.

WELLESLEY --- Brighton-based developer SEB has filed preliminary paperwork on a proposed Ch 40B four-story, 20-unit apartment building in a residential neighborhood along Route 9 in Wellesley, with five of the units set to be affordable.