Housing Headlines

LITTLETON --- The town's track record of approving measures that promote more housing continued this week as Town Meeting voted to rezone the 41-acre IBM industrial site, paving the way for new owner Sal Lupoli to propose a mixed-use development with housing. Concerns remain about municipal impacts but the vote does follow other moves the town has made, such as encouraging housing near commuter rail, accessory dwelling units and an amended senior development bylaw that promotes residents staying in town as they age.

HOLYOKE --- Once outdated and slated to be destroyed, the rejuvenated Lyman Terrace public housing has been recognized by the federal government's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with a 2021 Charles L. Edson Award for Tax Credit Excellence Award in preservation. Developed by Community Builders with technical assistance and financing support from MHP, Lyman Terrace involved the rehabilitation and expansion of 164 affordable apartments near downtown that had been built in 1939.

The federal government has rolled out a new program called Faircloth-to-RAD, which allows housing authorities to build more units by attracting investment through the conversion of public housing subsidies to Section 8 subsidies. RAD - short for Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) - has been in place since the Obama Administration but the new twist is housing authorities can now exceed caps set forth in the 1998 Faircloth Amendment, which prohibited the federal government from expanding its public housing stock.

WORCESTER --- At a recent housing forum hosted by state Rep. David LeBoeuf, local leaders heard an array of examples of how expensive the Worcester housing market is, like a plethora of cash buyers who are causing no-fault evictions of existing tenants. Local leaders also heard and discussed several ideas on how to address the crisis, from looking at rent control to tax credits for owners who sell to first-time buyers to using federal recovery act funds to address the crisis, as Gov. Baker has proposed for the Commonwealth.

In an opinion piece for Commonwealth Magazine, two nonprofit leaders 2 charged with helping state deliver rent assistance address "myths" about slow spending, long application process, denial rates & poor outreach. In setting up their myth-busting argument, Stefanie Coxe of the Regional Housing Network and Chris Norris of Metro Housing Boston note that Massachusetts is fourth in the US in rent assistance spending and has helped over 40,000 households avoid eviction.

NEWTON --- The Newton City Council voted 23-0 to approve some changes to the Riverside MBTA station mixed-use development proposal that it approved last year. The changes include substituting two life science buildings for a hotel and office tower. The number of apartments will drop from 582 to 550, 44 of which will be affordable to households earning 50 percent of area median income and 44 for households at 80 percent AMI. The project includes almost $9 million in community improvements for schools, neighborhoods, walking trails and sewers.