Housing Headlines

LAWRENCE --- Part of a city block ravaged by a 2008 fire is now a 10-unit home for veterans thanks to a partnership between the city, a Haverhill-based veterans group and Housing Support Inc. of Newburyport.

BOSTON --- Almost a month after failing to get support from the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, developers proposing to build 76 apartments at 3200 Washington St. have asked the city's zoning board of appeals for a delay so it can finalize its proposal. Local residents have complained that the project is too big and does not include enough affordable units.

SUDBURY --- The town recently broke ground on the construction of three affordable homes that will be sold to families earning less than 80 percent median income. The Sudbury Housing Trust has hired Transformation Inc. to build the homes on Maynard Road. A stand-alone home will sell for $180,800 while each unit in a duplex will ell for $162,700.

GRAFTON --- Selectmen have voted 3-2 not to reappoint Edward Prisby to the town's affordable housing trust committee. Prisby had questioned the town's decision to place $900,000 won in a profit dispute with a 40B developer into the town's general fund as opposed to the housing trust.

WALTHAM (originally published on May 22) --- To help the city meet the requirement of spending at least 10 percent of its collected Community Preservation Act funds on housing, a local nonprofit, the housing authority and the Community Preservation Committee have proposed a three-year, $3.2 million program that would provide rental assistance to low-income residents. City officials like the idea but have expressed concern that it is too big and too costly.

BOSTON --- While affordable housing advocates maintain that state statute Ch. 40B is an important tool in developing multifamily housing in places where zoning doesn't allow it, Mass. Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith says the law renders communities powerless because "developers hold all the cards" and "they are never overruled by the state and essentially call all the shots."