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Developer picked to turn several vacant lots into housing in Roxbury
By adamg on Fri, 03/18/2016 - 12:32pm
The BRA board yesterday gave tentative approval to Windale Developers to build 18 condo units on four city-owned vacant lots on Holworthy, Hollander and Waumbeck streets.
The $6-million Garrison Trotter phase II project was first proposed in 2013.
Upon completion, the new homes will be priced to attract a mix of moderate, middle and market rate buyers. Prices for the new affordable homes will range from $250,000 - $400,000 and will be affordable to households with a combined income of $60,000 - $100,000. The affordable moderate and middle-income homes will have a 50-year resale restriction to provide affordability for future generations of homebuyers.
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Glad to see this! But a question...
Is this related to the Garrison Trotter farm project?
Since the 1970s, there has
Since the 1970s, there has been a massive effort by the federal government to get more black people into home ownership, on the assumption that the increase of property values over time was one of, if not the most important means of generating family wealth. So now you're going to have housing built in a black neighborhood, but the buyers won't be able to benefit in the same way that white people do? Great - keep the children of black homeowners from inheriting a nest egg, so that when the time comes, they'll NEED 'affordable housing' provided by the government.
And the alternative is?
At least this way people might get a chance to actually own a home (and there's no reason they can't sell it to their kids; they just can sell it at the inflated prices that have become the norm in Boston).
Housing as contributing to
Housing as contributing to individual wealth (commodity) vs. housing that contributes to building communities.
Focusing on one limits the other. We can live without tremendous wealth, we struggle without community and connections to other human beings.
Yes and no
The ability to sell a family home within the family for say, $1, is a huge benefit to the people in my neighborhood who are working/middle class and have lived in Roslindale for generations. So that is preserved and a family who has one of these homes can keep that stability in their family if they'd like.
The 'windfall' thing seems like a weird argument. You'd like the person who gets the chance to buy this house at below market rates to be able to sell it at some future point at market rates at which point they'd move out, but not to subsidized housing. But if they can keep the house and sell it to a family member for less than market rates, that's a great benefit vs. buying an open market house. The open market for housing is currently brutal in Boston - this is not a minor perk.
So yeah, they can't sell the house and move to NC or something but this program is about preserving communities more than hooking up people with wealth, isn't it?
One thing..
Democrats and Republicans can agree on....
No mo' public housing....family style that is.
The private, for-profit groundswell is mounting.
There's affordable housing
There's affordable housing all through the city, not limited to any one "type" of neighborhood.
Not quite
The owners can still amass equity as the mortgage is being paid off, which you don't get when you rent.
Moreover, after 50 years, it is payday time. My mom bought her house in 1968, so she has 2 years to hit 50.
How do I apply for this?
?
http://www
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/housing/overview
"Members of the public must apply through the development's owner or designated agent, not through the BRA. Our flowchart gives an overview of the process, which begins with the construction of new affordable units.
"When a development finishes construction, its new units are advertised according to an approved marketing plan. Typically a plan will require the units be made available to eligible households through a lottery overseen by the city's Office of Fair Housing and Equity. Lottery results may be sorted according to applicable preferences which are designed to provide fair and equitable access to opportunity. The developer/agent reviews each applicant household's eligibility in order of the corresponding lottery rankings. After a preliminary finding of eligibility, the developer/agent submits the household's application to BRA staff for final approval. This process repeats until all affordable units in the development are filled with eligible households."
How do they keep that honest in Boston?
I hate to feel like I have to ask this, but I read the news.
Does anyone know if
Does anyone know if developers develop houses like this for normal people who are wheelchair bound not veterans?