Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- The latest report on the mayor's housing plan found the city building middle income housing at 85 percent of the speed needed to reach its 2030 goals.

JAMAICA PLAIN --- Despite a neighborhood group's insistence that any new housing be 100 percent affordable, the Boston Redevelopment Authority voted 3-2 to approve developers Dan Mangiacotti and Paul Iantosca's plan to build 76 apartments - 18 affordable - at 3200 Washington St. The building will replace an abandoned six-unit building that has drawn police attention for illicit parties and squatters.

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HOLYOKE --- Once outdated and slated to be destroyed, the rejuvenated Lyman Terrace public housing has been recognized by the federal government's Department of Housing and Urban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.