Housing Headlines

HADLEY --- The town's affordable housing trust has voted 6-1 to use $50,000 for a COVID relief fund to help those in town who have been harmed financially by the pandemic and may be in danger of being evicted. Town officials had hoped to fund the program with $100,000 in Community Preservation Act funds, but that required a Town Meeting OK and last month's meeting was adjourned due to lack of a quorum.

TRURO --- The attempt to turn former state highway land into 39 mixed-income rental apartments may have hit another snag as the developer has told the town he cannot include seven. market rate units because they would make the project no longer feasible. Ted Malone of Community Housing Resource in Provincetown told the zoning board that the state, which assists with securing subsidies for affordable housing, doesn’t want more than three levels of income restrictions in a single project. The original plan called for three levels, plus market rate, so people earning 60, 80, and 110 percent of the area median income would be eligible for income-restricted rental apartments.

Massachusetts is preparing to move ahead with its plan to start administering COVID-19 vaccines to homeless people, with the Pine Street Inn in Boston expected to receive 100 doses sometime in the next two weeks. The Commonwealth is one of several states in the country to prioritizes vaccinating the homeless. Public health leaders and housing advocates are discussing how to track recipients so they can give them the second shot.

BOSTON --- The Newton-based company that redeveloped the Boston Herald building and surrounding neighborhood into the Ink Block neighborhood has proposed to raze the former Midtown Hotel near Northeastern University and build a mixed-use apartment building with 325 rental units, 48 of them affordable. The motel, which overlooks Christian Science Plaza, is currently occupied by 300 Northeastern students.

In an editorial, the Boston Globe applauds the City of Boston for passing rules that will require developers of large properties to analyze the impact of their developments on fair housing and address any impacts, much as they do for traffic and the environment. In the same editorial, the Globe chided suburban communities to follow suit and urged the state legislature to OK the city's Home Rule petition to raise more money for housing, request that was filed more than a year ago.

Boston Magazine's Catherine Elton takes a detailed look at Boston's long history of racial segregation and why many believe it's only when we understand how much intention went into it will we understand how much effort will be needed to fix it. Elton writes, "Even if we were to wave a magic wand and dispense with the stubborn remnants of a discriminatory housing market and our conscious and unconscious biases, these vast economic inequities, largely created by past policies, would keep segregation running on autopilot in perpetuity."