Housing Headlines

TRURO --- The ongoing debate as to whether the 40-unit Cloverleaf affordable housing proposal will pollute Truro's drinking water just got more confusing as 77 residents submitted a petition with a 40-page report from Docs for Truro Safe Water, a group that includes seven M.D.s and Ph.D.s in various specialties, including an epidemiologist, a biology professor, two engineers, and a doctor of social work. Reporter Paul Benson untangles the science and explains why many experts say it's the town's 210 cesspools that are really the problem.

WORCESTER --- With the expiration of the state's eviction moratorium earlier in October, the City of Worcester is moving to establish an emergency rental assistance program. City Manager Edward Augustus said he will recommend that the city use $1.96 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to help approximately 550 to 600 residents across the city.

YARMOUTH --- The town's bylaw that encourages the redevelopment of underutilized motels into affordable housing is at work again, as the oldest motel in Yarmouth is about to be demolished to make way for 40 apartments on Route 28. Cambridge-based Commonwealth Community Partners bought the property for $800,000 and is expected to demolish the property soon and begin construction in late November, according to Jim Perrine, president of Commonwealth.

SOMERVILLE --- Efforts to rehabilitate state public housing by allowing new mixed-income housing along side it took a step forward recently as the Somerville Zoning Board of Appeals granted a comprehensive permit to allow the redevelopment of Clarendon Hill public housing. The proposal calls for Preservation of Affordable Housing and Gate Residential to co-develop the site, rebuilding 216 affordable apartments and adding 80 units of work force housing and 295 market rate apartments.

For Shelter Force, longtime Boston-based affordable housing lawyer David Abromowitz of Goulston & Storrs and Andrew Jakabovics of Enterprise Community Partners co-author a piece that quantifies the scope of the impending foreclosure crisis and calls for quick government response that would include extending income benefits to unemployed Americans, rent subsidies and neighborhood stabilization funds that would help nonprofits compete with cash-rich buyers to acquire and manage rental housing.

NEWTON --- As Greater Boston faces a housing crisis, Newton is debating whether to rewrite its zoning rules to allow more multifamily housing and move toward correcting the legacy of income inequality and racial segregation that critics say 20th-century single-family zoning left behind.