Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- The Boston Housing Authority recently announced plans to use $10 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to complete the first redevelopment phase of the Washington-Beech housing development. The funding will allow construction to begin on 100 affordable rental units starting April 1. In total, the finished project will add 342 new affordable apartments at Washington-Beech.

CONCORD --- The Concord Housing Development Corporation recently announced preliminary plans to buy 10 acres from the Department of Correction on which to build 20 affordable condominiums. The project is still in the early stages but developers hope to involve neighbors in the process and get their feedback from the start.

EDGARTOWN --- The Morgan Woods development, the largest affordable rental housing development on Martha's Vineyard, was designed as a mixed-income development to help working families find year-round housing in local communities. Now, the Martha's Vineyard Times reports, families have been forced to move out of the complex and several units sit empty on the site, because the locked-in unit prices allow no flexibility to entice tenants into renting.

TEWKSBURY --- Construction recently resumed on the Village Green 40B affordable housing project, after the site's developer managed to secure financing from the state. The complex will feature 56 rental units, 12 of which will be designated as affordable. The revised timeline calls for the project is to be completed around July 2009.

GROVELAND --- In response to community feedback, Coming Home Inc. has decided not to demolish two buildings and will instead rehabilitate the former St. Patrick's Church and the adjacent Richdale store property into 13 rental units affordable to families between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income. For a family of four, incomes would range from around $24,200 for 30 percent AMI to $61,500 for 80 percent AMI.

LENOX --- Robert Akroyd of Greylock Design Associates recently announced that he and his team are proposing to construct a mixed-use development on the site of Brushwood Farms. The existing buildings on the site will be razed and a hotel, office space, retail space and 134 housing units will be built with a portion of those units designated as affordable. Akroyd expects to present a packet of information to the town and begin the permitting process in April.