Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- A long-standing civil rights suit between Lowell public housing tenants and the city's housing authority has been settled, with the agreement calling for a program to help former residents of the Julian D. Steele housing project find good housing in neighborhoods of their choice, including in "opportunity areas" that are racially integrated. Tenants had charged they had been relocated to more racially-segregated areas of the city to make way for a new mixed-income housing community.

WAREHAM --- In an effort to get the ball rolling on affordable housing production in town, selectmen voted to eliminate the Wareham Housing Partnership, a volunteer organization that often was the first contact between the town and a Chapter 40B developer. Selectmen Bruce Savageau said, "This is not working, and we need to start all over again, in my opinion." He added that housing partnership was created to be a liaison between the selectmen and the Zoning Board of Appeals to advise selectmen on 40B proposals, but selectmen have had little contact with the Housing Partnership during his time on the board. Furthermore, he said, the partnership has not produced affordable housing in town as it was charged to do.

DUXBURY --- A developer known for turning old prisons and water works into luxury apartments is promising to build a different kind of 40B in Duxbury.

SUDBURY --- Nearly two years after offering to pay a Sudbury family $600,000 to keep 35 acres from being developed, town officials have learned that AvalonBay has reached an agreement to buy the land and plans to build 200 units of rental housing.

SPENCER --- Officials in this town west of Worcester gathered on Friday August 22 to celebrate an agreement that will allow Mental Health Programs Inc. of Boston to transform the town's former high school into 35 units of affordable housing for low-income seniors.

DORCHESTER --- Earlier this month, the public got to see Corcoran Jennison's proposal to build 350 units of rental housing, 250,000 square feet of retail space and 200,000 square feet of office space on the current site of the Bayside Expo Center. The plan also includes a major reworking of the roads around Columbia Point.