Housing Headlines

HINGHAM --- Eight years after building its first such development, Avalon Communities was back before the zoning board of appeals to unveil plans for a 250-unit CH. 40B development at the Hingham Shipyard.

BOSTON --- Five years ago, James Newton was struggling. Widowed, unemployed and raising a 13-year-old son with special needs, Newton said, "I was depressed .... I needed so much help with everything." Fast forward to today and Newton is working towards a college degree and is saving to buy a home thanks to the support he's received from the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership's Family Self-Sufficiency Program.

AMHERST --- In an effort to help the homeless and unemployed, the town now has a service center where people can go during the day to work with staff on finding housing. Called Amherst Community Connections, the facility is located in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Society.

SUDBURY --- At a zoning board of appeals meeting, members mentioned scaling back the proposed Avalon Bay affordable housing development, with one member worrying about how the 250-unit complex and the number of buildings would look from Horse Pond Road.

CHELSEA --- With the support of the City of Chelsea, and other funding partners, The Neighborhood Developers has redeveloped a vacant site on Shawmut Street into four, two-bedroom homes. The newly constructed apartments at Lewis Latimer Place will soon provide homes for at-risk, or high-risk young pregnant or parenting families. The new apartments will provide affordable, energy efficient and healthy living located not far from the many amenities in downtown Chelsea. The home is named after Lewis Latimer, who was born in 1848 in a building that formerly occupied this site. The son of a runaway slave, Latimer executed the drawings for Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone and invented a carbon filament to make electric lights longer lasting and more affordable.

WALTHAM --- Plans for a 195-unit apartment complex remain in limbo as the city will continue its fight to prove that 1.5 percent of its land is used for affordable housing, one of the thresholds that allow communities to have greater control over Ch. 40B development proposals. The city says it has reached this threshold and thus can deny Alliance Residential's proposal for Second Avenue but the state recently rejected Waltham's position. Waltham says it will appeal the decision.