Housing Headlines

LINCOLN --- Selectman are discussing whether to support a town meeting article that would transfer the ownership of six affordable housing units from the town to its affordable housing trust. The move would transfer the liability of the units from the town to the trust and allow more flexibility and efficiency for maintenance and repair, article proponents say.

MATTAPAN --- Over 100 residents attended a housing fair recently sponsored by Mattapan United's Housing Action Group. Attendees received information on a number of topics, including section 8, how to stay current on mortgages and avoid foreclosure and ways to save money by making homes more energy eifficient. Participants in the fair included Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP), NSTAR, Renew Boston, ABCD Housing and Foreclosure Prevention Department, CFS Realty, and Citizens Bank.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD --- One of the island's town accountants says that local Community Preservation Act funds put into an affordable housing fund to help lower-income homebuyers may have instead have been used for other purposes, such as organizational costs.

NORTH ANDOVER - Following a request for proposal that attracted only one developer, selectmen say they are remaining open-minded about Coalition for a Better Acre's plan to redevelop the former Bradstreet School site. The Lowell-based nonprofit has proposed to tear down the building and replace it with a two-story building that will feature first-floor commercial space and 24 affordable rental apartments on the second floor.

LITTLETON --- Abutters to a proposal that would add 190 apartments and a 19-lot subdivision to their neighborhood are upset at selectmen for not letting them repeat their concens at a recent public meeting, even as the developer - Omni Properties - added to its original offer of paying the town $1.2 million for sewer easements.

NEWBURYPORT --- A regional survey of the homeless population in Newburyport, Amesbury, Salisbury, Newbury and Rowley estimates that there are 76 individuals - five of them children - that are considered homeless.