Housing Headlines

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.

VINEYARD HAVEN --- The Island Housing Trust (IHT) recently held a ground breaking to kick off the second phase of its Wentworth Way affordable homeownership effort. Using a Ch. 40B permit issued by the town, IHT plans to build a total of six townhouses in three duplex buildings. Two duplexes with four townhouses were built during the first phase of construction and sold to income qualified applicants.

DORCHESTER --- A Boston developer will file plans with city officials to build a five-story, $60 million residential complex on a long-vacant parcel of land next to the JFK-UMass MBTA station on Morrissey Boulevard. The two- building complex would house 278 units of rental housing intended for a mixed market of young professionals, families, and older residents.

YARMOUTH --- Town Meeting has OK'd the use of $625,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to support the nonprofit Housing Assitance Corp. of Cape Cod's plan to build 17 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom affordable rental apartments in back of the Christmas Tree Shops on Rt. 28.

CANTON --- Selectmen recently approved a $1.95 million mitigation package from Avalon Bay Communities of Boston as part of an agreement allowing the developer to build 196 apartments on 43 acres of land near the Canton-Randolph border on Randolph Street.