Housing Headlines

CHATHAM --- Go big and create homes the Community Preservation Committee seemed to be saying as it recommended a $1 million contribution into the town's affordable trust, $200,000 more than town officials recommended and double previous years. The final figure that voters will consider at spring town meeting still needs to be ironed out but the CPC justified the increase, noting the need and plans to support two Habitat for Humanity homes, a housing feasibility study and hiring a housing coordinator.

NORWELL --- Building on the precedent of allowing its former police station site to be developed into 18 mixed-income apartments for seniors, Norwell is preparing to seek development proposals for a 24-apartment development on six acres of town land.

EASTHAMPTON --- Noting that the city did not reach goals set in its previous housing plan, City Councilor Tom Peake warned that failure to achieve the goals it sets for its next plan could cause the city to lose key part of its population. "Easthampton has a long history of blue collar residents and it also has a long history, especially recently, of being a place for artists," he said. "If we become a community that is unaffordable to those populations, those are important contributors to our civic life that we could lose.”

BOSTON --- The leadership of the Legislature's Housing Committee will be different this year as both Rep. Kevin Honan and Sen. Brendan Crighton will have new roles. Honan, the longtime House chair, will head the Steering Committee while Crighton will co-chair Financial Services. Stepping into leadership roles on the Housing Committee will be Rep. James Arciero of Westford and Sen. John F. Keenan of Quincy. (paywall)

BOSTON --- Saying once that she was born working, Doris Bunte is being remembered after her death at age 87 for her advocacy and drive that made her the first Black woman elected to be a state rep., the first Black woman to run the Boston Housing Authority, and the first housing project tenant to rise up and run it .“One of the most difficult assignments anybody’s ever had was integrating public housing," said former mayor Ray Flynn. “That’s her legacy."

In order to move the argument for affordable housing from talk to action, longtime advocate Gail Schecter of Chicago suggests 10 ways to broaden the conversation from housing need to asking what kind of community do we want to be. “Just as changing the phrase ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ broadened consensus for action, so will rephrasing the question about ‘affordable housing’ to ‘mixed-income housing.’ That change aims the focus on us, not ‘the other.’ ”