Housing Headlines

LEOMINSTER --- Tracing his opinion back to a fire that destroyed eight public housing units two years ago, the executive director for the Leominster and Lunenburg housing authorities, wants to eliminate smoking in public housing. The state Department of Housing and Community Development has sent the director, Gene Capoccia an e-mail recently giving him permission to submit a proposal. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino made statewide news recently when he proposed banning smoking from public housing.

HARWICH --- Selectmen voted last week to allocate $50,000 for rental assistance and another $50,000 for foreclosure prevention. The rental assistance program, adminstered by the Harwich Housing Authority, will help up to 18 Harwich households by paying landlords a monthly subsidy to keep rents affordable. The homeownership program would provide famiiles a one-time maximum grant of $2,500 to help them avoid foreclosure.

SPRINGFIELD --- A big part of the foreclosure story is how abandoned and foreclosed properties can impact neighborhoods, and another example of this took place in Springfield this week as a fire swept through an abandoned house for the second time in a week, causing the evacuation of nearby homes. Scroll down this page for similar stories in Quincy and Weymouth.

WEYMOUTH --- After two vacant buildings burned down days apart, officials in Weymouth are monitoring other possible targets. Mayor Sue Kay has asked that vacant buildings be mapped and monitored after fires claimed the former Grange Hall and a 19th century Victorian home.

EASTON --- The property where developer Nick Mirrione planned to introduce cottage-style starter homes to Massachusetts was sold last week at a foreclosure auction, just a few days before the town was set to rule on the developer's 40B proposal.

SPRINGFIELD ---- An Illinois-based bank is making significant repairs and improvements to an apartment block on Belmont Avenue, which was left without heat in December and abandoned by its prior owner, lawyers said.