Housing Headlines

WILLIAMSTOWN --- In an opinion piece for the Berkshire Eagle, Selectman Jeffrey Thomas salutes the housing that's been built since Tropical Storm Irene wiped out a 300-unit mobile home park, but chides the town for fighting other proposals and zoning changes that could've added more housing. He is hopeful that Gov. Charlie Baker's recently approved Housing Choice legislation will make it easier to adopt zoning changes and help the town overcome the "entrenched resistance to diversifying the housing stock here, especially toward affordable units"

SWAMPSCOTT --- Winn Development is in the process of gathering community input for its plans to build 128 mixed-income apartments on a 1.6 acre site near the Burrill Street commuter rail stop. Winn hopes to build the project with a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit and is seeking to finance the project with housing tax credits.

TAUNTON --- After years of planning, downtown Taunton appears poised to see one of its business blocks get a much-needed facelift. Phillip Giffee, executive director of Neighborhood of Affordable Housing Inc. said construction on transforming the second and third floors of these three buildings into 38 mixed-income apartments is expected to begin in the next nine to 10 months, now that that East Boston-based nonprofit as lined up the necessary public and private financing.

DETROIT --- Amherst native and former state official Arthur Jemison is leaving the City of Detroit for a job in the Biden Administration as principal deputy assistant secretary for community and planning at the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Jemison was deputy director at the Massachusetts Dept of Housing and Community Development for three years before leaving in 2014 to work for the City of Detroit as housing and revitalization director. He later served as the chief of services and infrastructure and group executive for planning and development.

In an opinion piece for the Boston Globe, two leading Greater Boston health experts call for more affordable housing measures, arguing that stable housing is key to better public health. “Good housing can make a world of difference ..., just as a lack of housing can be devastating. In hospitals like Boston Medical Center, we see this every day,” wrote Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett and Megan Sandel, both executives at Boston Medical Center.

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- As one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden called on several federal departments and agencies to extend their bans on evictions and foreclosures for those affected by the coronavirus until at least the end of March. he action seeks to extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's federal moratorium on eviction for non-payment of rent by two more months. The CDC's order first went into effect in September and the latest stimulus bill extended the protection until January 31.