Housing Headlines

HOLYOKE --- Two weeks after asking the federal government to ignore a request by the city's housing authority to demolish the Lyman Terrance public housing project, Mayor Alex Morse explained that he's not necessarily against knocking all or part of it down, but only if there's a comprehensive plan about what to do with the site and a strategy for relocating residents into new housing within the city.

EASTON --- In a sign that the long-delayed Queset Commons condominum project is back on track, developer Doug King has asked that the town apply to the state for funds to do intersection work near the 50-acre site where he plans to build hundreds of condominiums and assisted living units, as well as retail space. The town approved the site near Rt. 123 as a smart growth overlay district back in 2008.

BOSTON --- Some Jamaica Plain residents have voiced frustration that the co-developers of the Blessed Sacrament Church campus did not consult with the community on changes to the master plan for the campus redevelopment. Four buildings have already been redeveloped and new plans for the final two buildings include less affordable units than what was in the master plan.

BOSTON --- The BRA recently approved a plan to add 322 residential units with 15,000 square feet of retail space and a community center in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. Of the 322 units, 36 will be designated as affordable. The developer predicts that this project will create 600 construction jobs with a groundbreaking planned for spring 2013.

WORCESTER - A federal report on the city's housing programs says city officials failed to adequately oversee how millions of dollars in grant funds have been used by the city's community development corporations and that CDCs improperly spent federal money.

BOSTON --- Tenants have organized to try to keep Rutland Housing affordable. The federal contract requirng that the South End housing project be affordable has expired and the owners are keeping their options open. Rutland is is one of more than 900 such privately owned, low-income developments across Massachusetts, incorporated in the '70s and '80s as a short-term, cost-effective solution for public housing. Today, they are ticking time bombs in gentrifying neighborhoods like the South End, as the low-income contracts run out one by one.