Housing Headlines

GROTON --- A 17-unit affordable housing effort which will include units for people cared by the Department of Mental Retardation is being revised, after studies concluded that the parcel contains habitats for the blue-spotted salamander.

HARWICH --- The board of appeals has decided not to reduce the number of affordable units in a 10-unit effort proposed by the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless. Though the effort has not received final approvals, the board and developers will meet again next week to discuss a final draft proposal for the effort.

CHICOPEE --- A state financing agency has committed over $3 million in financing to support the Valley Opportunity Council Inc. purchase and renovation of its office in the former Mt. Carmel School. The agency, MassDevelopment also approved $335,000 from its Brownfield Redevelopment Fund to Ashford Place Winn II LLC to fund the cleanup of a site that will serve as a parking lot for a new senior housing development.

ALLSTON --- Community groups from Allston and Brighton met recently to discuss strategies on how to preserve some 350 affordable housing units whose federal use restrictions are set to expire in the next few years.

ANDOVER --- The town's affordable housing stock has fallen below the 10 percent level mandated by the state because numerous units built more than a decade ago and once on the books as affordable can now be rented at market rates.

BOSTON --- The Asian Community Development Corp. and the New Boston Fund are close to signing a lease agreement with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that would create 324 units of housing in Chinatown. Of the units, half of them would be affordable condos and rentals. Altogether, the effort will double Chinatown's current owner-occupancy rate.