Housing Headlines

SOUTH BOSTON --- The second phase of the Old Colony housing development is on schedule with an estimated completion date of winter 2014. The newly constructed second phase will consist of townhouses and four-story buildings that will hold the 169 new units. The project, which is broken up into three phases, will eventually remake the 16.7-acre affordable housing complex. First constructed in 1940, the entire parcel at one time contained 873 units in 22 three-story brick buildings.

NEWTON --- Residents packed the Village of Waban's library recently to voice their concerns over a propoals to turn a small fire station at the end of Beacon St. near the entrance to Rt. 128 into nine homes for the chronically homeless. The MetroWest Collaborative Development and Pine Street Inn have submitted a joint proposal to the city to spend $3 million to purchase and refurbish the 96-year-old former fire station. The plan would create 10 housing units, nine of which would be permanent studio apartments for men and women who live on the street or in emergency shelters and make less than $19,850 annually.

TISBURY --- The Island Affordable Housing Trust recently celebrated the grand opening of two more homes at its Lake Street affordale homeownership development. One local couple with jobs at the hardware store and a local cafe were able to buy one of the homes for $184,000, making it possible for them to move from where they had been living - their father's basement. The other unit home went for $225,000.

WORCESTER --- Telegram reporter Tom Caywood and photographer Paul Kapteyn take a close look at the city's Union Hill neighborhood and how bank-owned foreclosed properties are impacting this once-proud working class neighborhood. The Union Hill area corresponds roughly to U.S. Census Tract No. 7324, which ranks as the most-distressed tract with at least a thousand homes and apartments in the city and the sixth-most-distressed in the state, according to MHP's Foreclosure Monitor.

SOMERVILL E --- The Volunteers of America Massachusetts (VOAMA) development group are in the final stages of completing construction on the Massachusetts Bay Veterans Center on North Street. The development will provide 22 transitional housing units and 7 permanent units to formerly homeless veterans. In addition to the housing units, veterans will have access to mental health counseling, employment and healthcare referrals, life skills training, homeless services and recovery services on site.

JAMAICA PLAIN --- The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) recently approved plans for a 195-unit development at 105A South Huntington Avenue in Jamaica Plain. The complex, called Serenity, will be made up of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with 32 units designated as affordable.