Press
Barstow Lottery
The lottery took place on Friday, December 16th, 2011 at the Hanover Town Hall. The lottery cards were pulled by Selectman Pallotta, Audrey Barresi (Hanover Planning Office) and Margaret Hoffman (Hanover Planning Office). The first lottery number went to a resident of Hanover.
Applications are still being accepted.
Bill Grogan, Planning office of Urban Affairs; Joan Hurlburt, Barstow Applicant; State Representative Rhonda L. Nyman; Hanover Town Selectman Dan Pallotta; Dana Angelo, EA Fish Development
Audrey Barresi, Hanover Planning Office; Dan Pallotta, Town Selectman
Five Housing Projects Funded
Low-income units to get about $11m
Michele Morgan Bolton
Globe Correspondent / March 3, 2011
Five low-income housing projects — in Easton, Hanover, Hingham, Quincy, and Wareham — are slated to receive more than $11 million in state and federal housing tax credits and other subsidies to provide shelter for the needy, add local jobs, and boost overall economic development opportunities.
The funding is part of a $71 million initiative announced by Governor Deval Patrick last week benefiting 21 cities and towns around the state and adding more than 2,000 jobs to the workforce.
The projects south of Boston include the renovation and conversion of a historic shovel factory in Easton into affordable housing and the construction of a house with single-room units for homeless veterans in Hingham.
“By supporting these projects, we are also delivering options to a greater population of individuals and families,’’ said Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, who chairs the Interagency Council for Housing. “That includes those who earn modest wages and those transitioning from homelessness to permanent, sustainable living.’’
Once completed, the developments would create or preserve 1,642 units of rental housing, including 1,415 affordable units for low- and moderate-income families, according to the plan. Of those units, 246 would go to families earning less than 30 percent of area median income.
In Easton, Beacon Communities Development of Boston plans to use a total of $2.8 million in state and federal low- income housing tax credits and subsidies to turn a group of buildings from 1803 into 119 units of mixed-income rental housing.
Thirty of the units at Ames Shovel Works would be affordable and 12 would be set aside for extremely low-income families. To qualify for that designation, for example, the income of a three-person family currently living in a shelter can’t exceed $15,264 a year, according to guidelines.
“We are honored and we are thrilled,’’ Josh Cohen, Beacon’s development director, said of the project. “This is an adaptive reuse of phenomenal, historic buildings that are unlike any other Industrial Revolution buildings in Massachusetts. . . . We’re excited to be involved in this project at all.’’
In Wareham, $939,167 in federal low-income housing tax credits and $145,300 in state-issued low-income housing tax credits would help complete the third phase of Gardens at Union Pond, a 144-unit Gatehouse Group affordable-housing project. The new funding would create 40 affordable rental units, of which four would go to families with extremely low incomes.
In Hingham, Father Bills & MainSpring Inc., a homeless shelter and nonprofit agency based in Quincy, plans to use the $750,000 in state funds it would receive to complete the renovation and new construction of the Fort Hill Street Veterans Home. The Hingham residence will provide six single-room units for homeless veterans.
The nonprofit’s executive director, John Yazwinski, said he is thrilled with the grant, which, coupled with $250,000 pledged from Hingham’s Community Preservation Committee and $50,000 from the Hingham Affordable Housing Trust, would make the $1.3 million project possible.
“We believe no veteran should be homeless on the South Shore,’’ said Yazwinski, who praised Hingham officials and residents for their willingness to support the idea of the veterans home, as well as the federal and state agencies that have joined the partnership.
He said homelessness among veterans returning from war is on the rise, with more than 200 veterans cycling through the agency’s shelters in the last year.
Veterans who eventually move into the Hingham residence will receive community-based support services, Yazwinski said. Those who hope to return to the workforce will be assisted in doing so, and any who are unable to go back to work will receive the help they need.
Meanwhile, another nonprofit, Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore, plans to use $540,000 in federal low-income tax credits and another $2.5 million in state subsidies to complete Winter Gardens in Quincy, a new 24-unit affordable-housing development with six units for extremely low-income people.
And in Hanover, EA Fish Development, the project’s developer, and the Planning Office of Urban Affairs, a self-sustaining social justice ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, would use $1 million in federal tax credits and an additional $2.3 million from the state to build 66 new affordable units for residents 62 or older.
Of those, 10 units in what would be known as Barstow Village would be reserved for extremely low-income households.
“This is a great thing for Hanover,’’ said Margaret Hoffman, Hanover’s assistant town planner and Community Preservation Act coordinator.
She said Hanover’s 210 existing senior affordable-housing units are occupied and there is a two-year waiting list. The town has far fewer units than it needs for the demand from older residents who want to remain in the town, she said.
“I get phone calls all the time from seniors who want to know when Barstow Village will open,’’ she said.
When it does open, current residents of Hanover will have first shot at Barstow Village’s units, up to 70 percent; the remainder are open to other qualifying applicants, Hoffman said.
“Getting the project up and running and then open for our seniors is really necessary,’’ she said.
