Housing Headlines

QUINCY --- At least one residential home, a failed condo project and a former pizza parlor would make a "dirty dozen" list of blighted properties that the city would like to see repaired by property owners.

WORCESTER --- Following through on earlier discussions as to whether the downtown needs to emphasize more market-rate housing, the city has designated Quincy-based Acorn Management as its preferred developer for the former Lincoln Square Boys Club building. Acorn intends to redevelop the building into 28 market-rate housing units.

WORCESTER --- A bid to renovate two downtown buildings with tax credits --- which will mean the properties will feature some subsidized affordable housing --- has generated a debate over what the city needs to spark its downtown economy.

CONCORD --- The Board of Appeals recently granted the Concord Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) a special permit to construct eight units of housing at 1245 Elm Street. The Lalli Woods development will consist of four single-family homes and four duplexes with six units designated as affordable for residents earning at or below 150 percent of the area median income. A $500,000 grant from the Steinberg-Lalli Charitable Foundation and $75,000 in CPA funds made funding possible for this development. CHDC plans to start construction in the spring and begin moving families into the units in the fall.

HOLLISTON --- Almost four years after town meeting OK'd the creation of an affordable housing trust, selectmen are in the process of appointing trust board members so that funds can be used to create and preserve affordable housing.

MILTON --- Some want affordable housing. Others say the former "poor farm" should be designated as an historic landmark. Either way, selectmen seem destined to decide by spring what to do with the 34-acre parcel, which was donated to the town in 1701 by Gov. William Stoughton with the stipulation that it be used to benefit the poor.