Housing Headlines

A community's share of residents living in housing where there are more people than rooms may correlate to its vulnerability to COVID-19, a study from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute has found. Using data from the state Dept. of Public health, researchers found that cities like Chelsea, Brockton, Lynn, Lawrence and others all ranked at or near the top in rates of COVID-19 and overcrowding.

PEABODY --- Worried that neighbors may not be able to attend a special permit hearing due to a lack of technology in their homes, a Peabody City Councilor has asked the City Council to forego opening special permit hearings in remote council settings. During a remote meeting on April 23, Manning-Martin asked the council to not hold "controversial" special permit hearings but some councilors said they had no way of knowing what might prove controversial. Her motion failed 1-10, but there's a motion to reconsider this month.

Using data from a model developed by a California research group, the Pioneer Institute has created a COVID Unemployment Tracker that estimates unemployment rates by zip code and illustrates this information through interactive heat maps, trend graphs, and individual municipality and zip code data tables. The tracker shows the hardest hit counties and also shows unemployment hot spots by municipality.

NORTHAMPTON --- The Valley Community Development Corp. has tapped an asset manager executive from a regional affordable housing development company to be its new executive director. Janet Loechler, asset manager at The Community Builders, has been named to succeed Joanne Campbell, who is stepping down after 20 years. Loechler will begin her new job on June 1.

BOSTON --- The Senate on Monday, May 4 approved legislation to address a number of municipal governance challenges related to COVID-19. Included in the bill (S. 2680) are an extension of deadline for mayors to submit budgets, leeway to allows select boards to lower quorum requirements for town meetings and an option to hold town meetings remotely. The bill now goes to the House, and final action on the bill could come as early as this week.

BOSTON --- In advance of its 2020 Affordable Housing Program $18 million funding round, the Federal Home Loan Bank Boston is offering several online trainings to help applicants apply and factor COVID-19 impacts into their applications. The special trainings will run from May 19 through July 8 and run in parallel to the application window, which runs from June 8 until July 30.