Housing Headlines

SOMERVILLE --- With the new Winter Hill Urban Renewal Plan now released, the City of Somerville is ready to receive community feedback on how to proceed with plans for an affordable, green mixed-use development for the vacant 2.8 acre Star Market and Walgreens site at the corner Temple Street and Broadway.

LENOX --- A Superior Court judge upheld the Zoning Board of Appeals' waiver of an affordable housing requirement for a 26-unit downtown mixed-use development. meaning that whoever redevelops the historic 3.26 acre 1790 Northrup House property won't have to include two affordable units in the project.

NORWOOD --- The town is working with the South Middlesex Opportunity Council to use federal funds to offer emergenc rental assistance to households who have been impacted by COVID-19.

BARNSTABLE --- Barnstable County has set aside $100,000 in federal HOME funds to support another rental support program to help residents impacted by COVID-19. The new program will be administered by Housing Assistance Corp., which already has several related programs up and running. People may apply for all of the programs through a single application on HAC’s website.

PITTSFIELD --- ServiceNet's eight-year quest expand Pittsfield's shelter capacity has focused on securing a permit to add beds at First United Methodist Church. ServiceNet's efforts to increase shelter capacity is more urgent because existing shelters have had to reduce capacity due to COVID-19 and social distance practices. "I don't have a Plan B," ServiceNet's Jay Sacchetti said in a recent hearing. Not all are behind the solution as 10 businesses wrote a letter to the city saying the proposed shelter would present "yet another obstacle to" redeveloping the downtown.

BOSTON --- The 10,000-unit Suffolk Downs project appears headed for a final vote at the end of the month as developers have upped the number of affordable units at the huge site in East Boston from the required 13 percent to 20 percent, which, if approved, will mean the project will add more than 900 affordable units.