Group proposes apartment building in Dorchester to house homeless families

Heading Home, Inc., has filed plans with the BPDA to build a five-story, 23-unit apartment at 37 Wales St. in Dorchester for families trying to get out of homelessness.

If approved, the non-profit group would replace a ten-unit building on the site that it was using for the same purpose since 2011, but which it had to vacate in January because of issues with its structural stability - even though the building is less than 30 years old.

In addition to apartments for families making no more than 30% of the Boston area median income, Heading Home would provide support services to tenants to help them stay out of homelessness.

In addition to serving its clients, Heading Home says the new $12.5-million building would also benefit neighbors. The current building was sit on a raised pile of unstable fill; the replacement plans call for lowering the site's grade and replacing a failing 11-foot-high retaining wall in the rear with a more stable 8-foot-high wall.

37 Wales St. small-project review application (5M PDF).