Housing Headlines

FITCHBURG --- Idle and in a semi-renovated state for six years due to a lack of funding, a 10-story downtown public housing apartment complex has been renovated into 96 units of affordable rental housing for the elderly and disabled. Fitchburg Place - formerly called Groop Townview Towers - was redeveloped with $19 million public and private funds by WinnDevelopment, which acquired the property last October through a joint venture partnership with the Fitchburg Housing Authority.

WORCESTER --- A comprehensive housing market study that will be used by city officials to reshape its housing policies has recommended that the city maintain a supply of 9,000 to 9,600 affordable housing units to meet the needs of its population. The study found that Worcester currently has 9,400 "income-based" units and that 33,000 households in the city would qualify for these units.

BROOKLINE --- The town recently completed a subdivision that includes 10 single-family homes and 24 affordable condominium units on the site of a former reservoir in the Fisher Hill neighborhood. The town provided over $2 million in subsidies to help produce the 24 affordable condominium units.

MARLBOROUGH --- The city agency that oversees the housing authority has begun discussing the impact of proposed recommendations that would consolidate smaller housing authorities into regional entitites. Housing Authority Director Doug Bushman told the city's Community Devlopment Authority that regionalization could result in city taxpayers subsidizing smaller nearby housing authorities. Marlborough currently has 227 units of public housing, which could make it a candidate for regionalization under a proposal put forth by the Massachusetts Commission on Public Housing Sustainability and Reform, which was formed in the aftermath of reports of mismanagement in the Chelsea and Medford housing authorities.

VINEYARD HAVEN --- The Island Housing Trust (IHT) recently held a ground breaking to kick off the second phase of its Wentworth Way affordable homeownership effort. Using a Ch. 40B permit issued by the town, IHT plans to build a total of six townhouses in three duplex buildings. Two duplexes with four townhouses were built during the first phase of construction and sold to income qualified applicants.

DORCHESTER --- A Boston developer will file plans with city officials to build a five-story, $60 million residential complex on a long-vacant parcel of land next to the JFK-UMass MBTA station on Morrissey Boulevard. The two- building complex would house 278 units of rental housing intended for a mixed market of young professionals, families, and older residents.