Housing Headlines

SOMERVILLE --- Residents prepared to deliver copies of a petition to city hall and a developer demanding that work on an affordable housing development get underway. Developer Union Square Station Associates has committed to building 51 housing units, 39 of which would be affordable, on a parcel on Webster Avenue. Residents say they're tired of delays.

WORCESTER --- Worcester City Manager Eric Batista has presented a housing production plan and affordable housing preservation program to City Council to address the city's housing crisis. the housing strategy consists of three pillars: housing production preservation and healthy homes; homeowner, tenant and unhoused assistance; and public policy. While the city recently passed an inclusionary zoning policy that will require developments of 12 units or more to reserve 10 to 15 percent of their units for affordable housing, Batista said additional initiatives are needed.

NANTUCKET --- Town meeting voters approved a $6.5 million permanent tax override to fund affordable-housing initiatives by a wide margin. This in the wake of the island’s real estate boom and deepening housing crisis.

STATE -- About a dozen cities and towns are asking state lawmakers for permission to impose a local transfer tax on the sale of real estate to raise revenue for affordable housing. Proposals have failed in the past and faced stiff opposition from the real estate industry, but with a new governor in office and heightened urgency, advocates say momentum and optimism are on the increase.

BOSTON --- Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has proposed halting plans for housing designated for low-income households for at least three months. Pointing to a history of redlining and displacement in Roxbury, Fernandes Anderson said the community needs “conversations about the repercussions of not atoning for harms.” She said that while she is in favor of affordable housing, she is frustrated with the current development process.

NANTUCKET --- A bumper sticker delivered anonymously to the Town & County Building in Nantucket reads, "If you want affordable housing, move to Cape Cod where you belong." An infuriated Select Board Chair Jason Bridges read the bumper sticker at a recent board meeting and called it insensitive. Since the pandemic, Nantucket's housing crisis has only deepened as the island's real estate market has boomed. This weekend, island voters will consider a permanent $6.5 million annual tax override for affordable housing projects to continue.