Housing Headlines

NEWTON --- With zoning OK'd last last year, developers of the Riverside MBTA station have been continuing discussions with the City of Newton's Land Use Committee regarding the project's special permit application, which also needs a two-thirds vote of the City Council. Mark Development and Normandy Real Estate hope to build a 10-building mixed-use development with 582 apartments on 13 acres. The Land Use Committee is aiming to put something before the City Council by July, with a council vote coming as early as September.

MEDFORD --- Using $250,000 it OK'd for use from its Community Preservation Act fund, the City of Medford has created a fund to provide short-term rent relief to income-qualified residents who are struggling to pay their rent due to COVID-19. The program is being administered by the Action for Boston Community Development, a Boston-based regional nonprofit.

WEYMOUTH --- The town will spend $200,000 to buy 13 acres of tax-delinquent, contaminated land and hopes to attract a developer who would clean up the site and develop mixed-income housing with at least 25 percent of the units affordable. The hazardous waste is said to be dredged materials from the Fore River and construction debris, such as ceiling tiles from Weymouth High School. The city estimates the clean-up costs would be between $3 and $4 million.

BOSTON --- In it's latest newsletter, LISC Boston takes a pause from its ongoing COVID-19 response activities to tout some of its pre-crisis work, including a partnership with Partners HealthCare to provide early financing to affordable housing developers seeking to build apartments near transit. The fund is a joint effort that includes The Boston Foundation, Hyams Foundation, MassDevelopment and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

BOSTON --- In its latest analysis of state unemployment claims (May 15), the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) found that 40 percent of the unemployment claims came from three occupation types and that an estimated 15,500 unemployed still need help with basic needs and housings costs. MAPC estimates that if these households are still unemployed when CARES Act benefits end in August, the statewide assistance gap will be $195 million monthly.

BOSTON --- New research from housing advocacy group City Life / Vida Urbana and MIT found 243 evictions were filed in Boston during the period between the outbreak linked to a Biogen conference in February and the governor’s passage of a moratorium on evictions on April 20. Additionally, 78 percent of the eviction filings during that period were in census tracts where the majority of residents are people of color.