Housing Headlines

EASTHAMPTON --- With tax credits and other public subsidies now in hand, Arch Street Development has purchased a former dye works building and next month will begin transforming the three-story brick building into 50 affordable rental apartments.

BOSTON, Dec. 22, 2013 --- A four-month Boston Globe investigation has found that the Boston Redevelopment Autority has allowed at some developers breaks on development fees that are commonly applied by the city and to fund affordable housing.

PLYMOUTH --- Delayed for several years due to abutter appeals that were unsuccessful, Sawmill Development is moving forward with its plans to use a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit to build 200 units (50 affordable) on land in the Plymouth village known as Manomet.

AMHERST --- Local officials have applied to the town's Community Preservation Act advisory committee for $750,000 and they hope that these funds will be used in combination with other public and private funding sources to preserve 65 affordable rental apartments at two different apartment builindgs.

BOSTON --- Father Bill's & MainSpring, a nonprofit that serves homeless people in the Brockton and Quincy areas, will receive $249,987 from a new $1.7 million state job training program aimed at helping homeless people find work so that they will not have to continue to live in shelters.

NORTON --- In an effort to maintain the "country" look of its town, selectmen remain unhappy with a 188-unit, five-building 40B proposal that calls for some buildings to be over 50 feet high. The town initially got Thorndike Development and Campanelli Corp. to cut the height of its buildings back from 55 feet to 49 feet 10 inches but reporteldy remain upset with the town's Zoning Board of Appeals after learning that revised plans call for two buildings to be over 50 feet.