Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- The Boston Housing Authority has won federal approval to change the way it distributes housing units to senior citizens and disabled adults in the 36 elder-disabled apartment buildings owned by the city of Boston. The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has approved the BHA's request to change the ratio of elderly to non-elderly disabled in its buildings to 80 percent elderly, 20 percent non-elderly disabled. It had previously been 70-30.

YARMOUTH --- Four motels along Route 28 are being rehabilitated into year-round apartments. The four hotels being converted are: Neptune Place (28 units, 6 affordable), Seagull Beach Motel (8 units, 2 affordable), Cap'n Gladcliff (24 units, 7 affordable) and the Windrift (7 units).

GROTON --- Affordable for-sale units at the new Boynton Meadows subdivision are selling slowly and the town's housing coordinator says it's because first-time buyers are having trouble meeting all the various requirements needed to secure financing.

BOSTON --- A researcher taking a graduate level class at Northeastern University has used new tools to map economic disparities in Boston on metrics ranging from unemployment, rent burden, household income, commute times, home ownership and families under the poverty level. Take the link to the Globe story or go to researcher Daniel Hartman's results at Hartman.dj/boston.

QUINCY --- A planner for a regional planning agency has said the city is headed in the wrong direction when it comes to affordable housing as all 2,200 housing units in the development pipeline are not slated to be affordable. Currently 4,077 of Quincy's 42,547 housing units are considered affordable (9.6 percent), a percentage that will go down once the 2,200 market-rate units come on line.

BOSTON --- Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance Executive Director Tom Callahan uses the upcoming Yankees-Red Sox series to point out that when it comes to including affordable housing in housing developments, New York City is winning, generally requiring twice as much as Boston.