Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- City officials are declaring that a program focused on improving the city's 9,000 three-deckers has been a success, pointing to figures that show more homeowners than investors are purchasing three-deckers. According to Department of Neighborhood Development chief Shiela Dillon, 51 percent of the three-deckers sold last year were bought by owner-occupants.

NEEDHAM --- The selectmen reiterated their commitment to affordable housing while at the same time voicing concern about the impact of a 300-unit Ch. 40B proposal for Greendale Avenue, which has received the necessary state approvals to bring the project before the town's zoning board of appeals.

HINGHAM - The town will now have to consider Avalon Bay's 177-unit Ch. 40B proposal after the state Housing Appeals Committee ruled that only 25 percent of the units at the Linden Ponds retirment community are affordable, keeping the town affordable unit count under the 10 percent necessary to deny 40B applications.

BOSTON --- The Citizen's Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is kicking off a second phase of its Welcome Home campaign to promote affordable housing development with a technical assistance grant program that offers $2,500 grants to communities to help advance a specific development proposal or to promote a better environment for advancing an affordable housing agenda.

WAREHAM --- A local developer who is representing the nonprofit Community Development & Mortgage Alliance Corp. has proposed to turn the notorious White Pines Motel site into 24 units of affordable housing. Developer Bob Minichielli told the town's affordable housing trust that the project would feature 12 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom apartments. White Pines Motel was the scene of a stabbing last year in which two men were killed. After this incident, the property was foreclosed after authorities discovered that the owner John D'Italia did not have a valid license to operate and owed $65,000 in taxes.

DORCHESTER --- For the past few years, efforts by the City of Boston to stabilize properties on Hendry St. have been threatened by a house at the end of the street. Following the arrest of some 30 individuals for gang and drug activity on Hendry and nearby Woodward St., Dorchester Reporter correspondent Adam Gaffin uses police reports to detail what was going on at 37 Hendry St.