Housing Headlines

LOWELL --- Excavators will soon start digging up earth at River's Edge to create more roads and homes after the state announced $1.5 million in new funding for the 180-unit affordable-housing project off Gorham Street near the Chelmsford line. The state support was well received by community leaders who have labored for years to replace the decaying Julian D. Steele public housing project.

NEWTON ---Six different groups have submitted mixed-use development proposals for the Austin Street parking lot that could pump millions of dollars into a site the city has deemed surplus. Each proposal complied with the city's demands for the site, including the inclusion of 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor and at least 18 housing units - 25 percent of which must be affordable units. The parking lot is across from Shaw's Super Market, which overhangs the Mass Pike.

WORCESTER - City officials are going after five nonprofit housing groups to recoup up to $3.7 million in federal housing funds that they say were spent on items ineligible for federal reimbursement, but one CDC official said the city administration has distorted and exaggerated the federal concerns because it is directing its housing strategy away from affordable housing.

AMHERST --- Selectmen have voted 3-1 in favor of a town meeting warrant that would ask voters to appropriate funds to buy and preserve the affordability of Echo Village Apartments, which stands to lose 24 affordable units if the new owners go through with their plans to raise rents to market levels.

MILTON --- Earlier in May, town meeting approveed a zoning change that would allow the construction of a 92-unit assisted-living facility on Randolph Avenue. Elm Development Services LLC of Longmeadow is seeking to build a 92-unit facility on the site of the former Horseplay Stables. Of the units, 30 would be for people with health issues related to memory loss and five percent of the units would be affordable.

BEVERLY --- Two new housing developments, both within a few blocks of the Beverly commuter rail station, will add a total of 46 new units of affordable housing to the downtown neighborhood. North Shore Veterans Counseling Services will redevelop a former rooming house at 45 Broadway into 14 single rooms. The building will also contain an outreach center, offering drug and alcohol awareness counseling and post-traumatic stress disorder counseling to veterans in the region. Additionally, Windover Construction will transform a former box factory at 60 Pleasant Street into 32 studio apartments.