Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- A new report by Metro Housing|Boston has found that demand for housing assistance through the Residential Assistance to Families in Transition (RAFT) program has increased 62 percent in the metro Boston region since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March compared to one year ago. The report also found that in the first 12 weeks of FY21, nearly 1,100 households received $3.2 million in RAFT support.It took nine months to spend a similar amount in FY20.

BELMONT --- Town Meeting's approval of a special zoning overlay district by a vote of 256-5 clears the way for Northland Residential to move forward with a 150-unit mixed-use residential community on a 13.5 acre site at McLean Hospital.

HUDSON --- The possible redevelopment of the old police station for affordable housing has cleared another procedural hurdle as selectmen signed off on a Town Meeting warrant article that will ask voters to transfer the property to the local Affordable Housing Trust.

SWAMPSCOTT --- The town's inclusionary zoning bylawy - amended in 2019 to be more effective - has generated a $150,000 payment into the town's affordable housing trust from developer Tom Groom, who opted to pay into the fund in lieu of making 10 percent of his units affordable at a 28-unit Fishermans Watch condominium project he developed on Greenwood Ave. The trustees anticipate three more payments from two other housing developments, cumulatively worth $450,000, according to Kimberly Martin-Epstein, a lawyer and chair of the Swampscott Affordable Housing Trust Fund board.

EVERETT --- City Planner Tony Sousa says he's excited about development activity at two Upper Broadway properties, with the city about to issue a proposal to seek developers to create senior and veterans housing at the former Pope John High School and The Neighborhood Developers (TND) moving forward with redeveloping the former St. Theresa's Church into 77 senior housing units, six homeownership units and commercial space which will house Mystic Valley Elder Services. Sousa said WinnCompanies, TND and another developer have showed interest in Pope John.

BOSTON --- While we don't have good local data yet, a national survey from an organization that helps landlords find and screen tenants found that over 40 percent of households are making payments by either pulling from emergency savings or borrowing from family members. This finding only increases fears that the impact of COVID-19 on peoples' ability to keep up with housing costs will be disproportionately felt by Black and Latino households in Massachusetts, who have less access to familial wealth than whites, according to a 2015 Boston Fed study.