Housing Headlines

WORCESTER --- At the state Department of Housing and Community Development hosuing conference on Tuesday, Nov. 13, Governor Deval Patrick detailed a plan to produce 10,000 multifamily housing units a year through 2020 in an effort to keep young professionals from leaving Massachusetts. The initiative includes a program called Compact Neighborhoods that will encourage and create housing near workplaces, public transportation, and city and village centers, Patrick said.

NEEDHAM --- Selectmen are unanimous in their opposition to a proposed 300-unit apartment complex on Greendale Avenue. The Greendale Mews project would consist of three four-story building with 300 apartments; 75 of those apartments would be designated as affordable. The project would also include a one-story amenity area and a two-level parking garage located underneath the buildings.

FITCHBURG --- Idle and in a semi-renovated state for six years due to a lack of funding, a 10-story downtown public housing apartment complex has been renovated into 96 units of affordable rental housing for the elderly and disabled. Fitchburg Place - formerly called Groop Townview Towers - was redeveloped with $19 million public and private funds by WinnDevelopment, which acquired the property last October through a joint venture partnership with the Fitchburg Housing Authority.

WORCESTER --- A comprehensive housing market study that will be used by city officials to reshape its housing policies has recommended that the city maintain a supply of 9,000 to 9,600 affordable housing units to meet the needs of its population. The study found that Worcester currently has 9,400 "income-based" units and that 33,000 households in the city would qualify for these units.

BROOKLINE --- The town recently completed a subdivision that includes 10 single-family homes and 24 affordable condominium units on the site of a former reservoir in the Fisher Hill neighborhood. The town provided over $2 million in subsidies to help produce the 24 affordable condominium units.

MARLBOROUGH --- The city agency that oversees the housing authority has begun discussing the impact of proposed recommendations that would consolidate smaller housing authorities into regional entitites. Housing Authority Director Doug Bushman told the city's Community Devlopment Authority that regionalization could result in city taxpayers subsidizing smaller nearby housing authorities. Marlborough currently has 227 units of public housing, which could make it a candidate for regionalization under a proposal put forth by the Massachusetts Commission on Public Housing Sustainability and Reform, which was formed in the aftermath of reports of mismanagement in the Chelsea and Medford housing authorities.