Housing Headlines

WEST TISBURY --- Voters at special town meeting approved a measure that clears the way for a 4.9 acre town-owned site behind the old fire station to be developed into seven apartments totaling 18 bedrooms.

EAST BOSTON --- Picked by the Boston Housing Authority in June to rebuild the aging Orient Heights housing development, Trinity Financial met with the neighborhood council in November and reiterated its plans to knock down the buildings and build something new, and promised to have some renderings for the community to review when it meets with the council again in January.

LYNN --- With four new homes almost finished and destined to be sold to first-time homebuyers, the Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development (LHAND) has completed its 20-year effort to stabilize the Union Street with new homes under its Infill Housing Project Program.

BOSTON --- In her ongoing series of columns about Boston four decades after busing, the Boston Globe's Farah Stockman takes a look at the irony of towns stepping up to allow black students to attend schools through the METCO program while maintain zoning policies that results in making it impossible for blacks and families of modest means to afford homes there.

NEWTON --- The often contentious debate over whether to allow developers to turn a municipal parking lot near the commuter rail into 68 apartments received some support as the Newton Tab published a strong editorial favoring the plan while chiding those who "would seemingly build a figurative wall around the Garden City, in order to preserve its character."

SPRINGFIELD --- Nearly 10 years after declaring war on chronic homelessness, the City of Springfield is seeing results as homelessness is down considerably due to a series of measures that included providing shelter and support services, permanent housing and the construction of a 24-hour homeless assistance center.