Housing Headlines

QUINCY --- A planner for a regional planning agency has said the city is headed in the wrong direction when it comes to affordable housing as all 2,200 housing units in the development pipeline are not slated to be affordable. Currently 4,077 of Quincy's 42,547 housing units are considered affordable (9.6 percent), a percentage that will go down once the 2,200 market-rate units come on line.

BOSTON --- Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance Executive Director Tom Callahan uses the upcoming Yankees-Red Sox series to point out that when it comes to including affordable housing in housing developments, New York City is winning, generally requiring twice as much as Boston.

FOXBORO --- The chair of the zoning board of appeals is urging the town and residents to continue discussions with The Hanover Company over its plans to use Ch. 40B to build a 248-unit apartment building, even though a lawyer representing the Texas-based company has said the company will not reduce the scope of its plans. ZBA Chairman J. Neil Forster says discussions should continue as an outright denail may put the town at risk of losing an appeal with the state.

PROVINCETOWN --- While town officials say a developer Chris Wise's redesign of a 24-unit 40B proposal is an indication of his willingness to work with the town, residents are saying the opposite and view the redesign as akin to putting a "Victorian shawl atop an elephant."

WASHINGTON --- Preliminary findings of HUD's Family Options Study found that 18 months after being randomly assigned to one of four interventions, families offered a housing voucher experienced significantly better outcomes than those families randomly assigned to any of the three other options.

SPRINGFIELD --- Bilingual Veterans Outreach Center recently began construction on a $2.8 million housing complex to provide permanent housing for 20 homeless veterans. With an expected completion date of December 2015, the organization will begin taking applications in November.