Housing Headlines

FRAMINGHAM --- Town Meeting approved an overhaul of the town's 2004 affordable housing inclusionary bylaw. The new changes require that developers include affordable housing in their projects and eliminates the option that allowed developers to provide a cash payment or build affordable housing elsewhere. Town official explained the change is being made so the town can avoid creating concentrated pockets of affordable housing.

NEW BEDFORD --- Two long-standing transitional housing programs for the chronically homeless are now struggling to keep their doors open after failing to secure federal grants they have been counting on for years. Instead, a second round of HUD funding through its Continuum of Care program went to a permanent supportive housing program called Prism. A HUD spokesman said permanent housing is being prioritized because it is more effective at ending homelessness.

TRURO --- At Town Meeting, voters OK'd the acquisition of four free parcels of land from the state near the intersection of Highland Road and Rt. 6. The town plans to use the land for affordable housing.

LITTLETON --- Despite protests from residents urging the town to buy the entire property, the Board of Selectmen voted in favor of a Host Community Agreement that will allow for the sale of the Couper Farm to developers who will preserve 22 of the 34 acres and develop the remaining land into no more than 23 dwellings that will include a 12-unit rental project with four affordable units.

EASTHAM --- A few days before a Town Meeting vote on whether to buy a Rt. 6 site, a developer who currently has an option to acquire and develop the site announced he is scaling back his plans from 115 units on 10 acres to 50 units on five acres of the former golf driving range.

With Cambridge and Lexington having passed laws to make it easier for single-family home owners to create accessory apartments, Boston Globe columnist Dante Ramos looks at how this long tradition of carving out modest apartments within homes may help ease the housing crunch.