Housing Headlines

LEXINGTON --- In response to recommendations that the town-owned, eight-acre Busa Farm be used for community farming and some affordable housing, a petition drive has begun asking that development on the site be limited to two units.

SWAMPSCOTT --- The town's Building Oversight Committee will recommend to selectmen a developer's plan to build 19 homes on the former Temple Israel site instead of B'nai B'rith's proposal to build 64 units of elderly housing.

MIDDLEBORO --- After two years of seeking permits, the Heritage Companies are ready to move forward with the renovation of the historic 19th century Winthrop-Atkins Mill Complex into a 71-unit apartment complex that will include some affordable units and an office building.

WILLIAMSTOWN --- After flood waters from Hurricane Irene wiped out much of a trailer park and rendered over 200 homes unfit for occupancy, Williamstown is eyeballing four sites as possibilities for affordable housing development.

WORCESTER --- Calling the public housing system a "well-intentioned failure", Worcester Housing Authority Executive Director Raymond Mariano is hoping to wean tenants off public housing with a proposal that includes requiring all able-bodied residents younger than 50 to go to work or to attend school full time to continue to receive housing benefits.

CHILMARK --- A school teacher, a town employee, a medic, a nurse's aid and children - lots of children - are about to move into the town's first town-owned affordable housing project. Known as Middle Line Road, workers are putting the finishing touches on the first phase, which features three duplexes with two rental apartments each. The second phase features six one-acre homesites with deed covenants to ensure that they stay permanently affordable. The owners of these sites will build their own homes and lease the land from the town on a long-term basis.