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Pine Street Inn wins board approval for Jamaica Plain apartment building that will provide permanent homes for the previously homeless

Architect's rendering of proposed Pine Street Inn building

Rendering by RODE Architects.

The BPDA yesterday approved a proposal by the Pine Street Inn and the Community Builders for a 202-unit apartment building on Washington Street, near Green Street, in Jamaica Plain, in which 140 units will be reserved for people in Pine Street Inn programs and the rest rented to people making no more than 80% of the Boston area median income.

The new building will replace a warehouse owned by the Pine Street Inn at 3368 Washington St. and will include space for Pine Street Inn counselors, case managers and other staffers who will help Pine Street Inn clients adjust to life in their new homes. The city's Boston's Way Home program, which works to create permanent homes for the homeless, will provide some funding for ongoing support at the new building.

The proposal will also require approval of the Zoning Board of Appeal.

3368 Washington St. documents.

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Comments

Sounds like a great project.

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Unfortunately the NIMBY neighbors knocked it down by a floor, cutting out 26 affordable units.

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Yep. They also demanded (and got) more parking "because low income people shouldn't be without a place to store their cars" (paraphrasing but not even kidding). There wasn't room to add more parking so the effect was to reduce the number of units.

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Most of the JP based posted here definitely like punching down on poor folks.

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I am just glad I don’t hold a 500 grand plus mortgage on anything near this place. Would you want to live next to it? Try to sell a place near it?

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This isn't a new project proposal & Pine Street has owned that property for years. They ran a job training program and a second hand store at that site, and probably other projects I'm unaware of. The folks who run Pine Street are fantastic, thoughtful, and this is a desperately needed facility.

This wasn't sub rosa, like Harvard buying property around Linden Street through sock puppets. Everyone in JP has known Pine Street was interested in further development and if anyone bought property nearby hoping it wouldn't happen, that's on them.

No one-- NO ONE-- is guaranteed a rate of return on real estate, even if it we've been subject to 30+ years of marketing telling us otherwise.

Everybody has to live somewhere, preferably somewhere warm and safe.

(Made an earlier comment while not logged in, awaiting moderation)

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Bet you don’t even live that side of Washington

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I live on that side of Washington. I think this project is great aside from not having ground level retail and I’ll still make a huge profit when I sell my condo. Maybe I’ll even donate a couple thousand to Pine Street and I’ll write “Whit is a moron” in the memorandum part of the check.

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Ha ha .. I would like that. Send me a copy when u do.

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... because I lived on "that side" for the better part of 20 years, loved it, but could not find a handicapped- accessible condo I could afford in the area once I started looking. Now I'm between Jackson & Hyde.

Of course, I've written about all of that on here previously.

But what is your point?

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Good for the housing program proposed; bad for the streetlife. Meaning, no active ground floor use to provide liveliness and commercial hustle bustle. It's a little commercial node just trying to take hold with the brewery, bagels, bakery, etc and now there will be dead space all along the ground floor of this development. Lost opportunity. Why couldn't they do a non-profit type coffee house like The Well (South Station or State St downtown).

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There would be a much different street life if the steel was still up!

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Would take living nearby to Pine Street over Mildred. Homeless people who find permanent housing are not likely to commit crime and lose it.

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Glad to see it, and a great use of that property. Would also love to see the Pine Street second hand store re-open there, if they have room for it on the first floor.

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