From Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s budget announcement:
I am excited to announce that we will explore preserving the National Guard Armory building on Washington Street at the edge of West Newton Square and repurposing it as 100 percent affordable housing so more people of modest means can make this good city of Newton their home. The commonwealth is willing to sell the building to the city for $1 only if it is used for affordable housing, a use in which I believe deeply, and which also allows the city to control what happens to this important building.
Sounds like an outstanding opportunity. Bravo Mayor Fuller!
Great location for senior affordable housing!
I will put up the dollar. Perfect location within walking distance to the Renaissance that will be West Newton. Can we get it done within 7 years?
This is a 10 strike.
@Jack Leader: Even without the developments in west newton, it’s already walking distance to Trader Joe’s, and a few other useful spots. Repurposing this building seems like a great way to enhance the city without changing the landscape.
Mike,
The only problem the mayor will have with this proposal is the throngs of special interest groups who will want occupancy for particular groups.
– asylum seekers
– seniors
– homeless
– half way house
– battered wives
– mobility challenged
I hope preference will be given to existing Newton residents
If it were permitted, I think they should reserve these units for people with less than 60% of median income. 80% is still a lot.
I think it’s a great idea and a perfect location.
Its in close proximity to West Newton Square, The West Newton Cinema, Several banks, and as someone else had previously mentioned it’s adjacent to Trader Joe’s (Just cross Armory street.)
This is a great location, and since we are getting the land for free I really hope this is an opportunity to create some deeply affordable housing. Newton is in desperate need of housing for people at the very low end (30% AMI) of the income scale.
Totally agree with all of you (including Greg) on this one!!
Bugek, what makes you think that there aren’t Newton residents who are senior, mobility impaired, recovering from addiction, or escaping from an abusive spouse AND low-income?
I housed my mother (low-income) got a number of years. For senior low income housing it’s exactly what you state: Newton seniors have priority, so the wait list is only 3 years. (You can sign up in other towns, but they warn you upfront that the wait is 5+ years to never)
I’m sure it’s the same if you have a family member (especially teen or twenties child) with mobility restrictions, other disabilities, or who is recovering from addiction.
Anne,
Its very difficult for a single place to be a catch all. Recovering addicts need specialized staff and services, homeless/mental issues have different security concerns. Abused females may prefer female only spaces.. etc etc
If it were up to me, i would make it a low income senior home BUT also include large space for senior center activities for all seniors.
Not sure how big this space is..
Eldery in newton deserve to be taken care of after everything they’ve contributed to the city..
Would the building be torn down and replaced.
As is it is not suitable for housing.
Who pays the cost and how can low income people afford it?
Newton could use a decent senior center! Newton is the only town that houses a senior center in a dungeon. No one wants to go it’s depressing! Every surrounding town has built a beautiful senior center for activities for this age range. Newton doesn’t care about Seniors and I am sure they will not house too many here. It is a sanctuary city after all. It will house low income relatives of notable people in city hall, sanctuaries, and a couple of token elderly. It will further bring down West Newton-which the city never has cared about.
Jillian,
Absolutely! Why is everything have to be a development. While I agree, that this is a great place for senior living (close to a grocery store) and affordable living, I feel like Newton could use a Community Center, that is a place for seniors and youth and teens to hang out in (different parts of the building). During school hours the community center gym could have senior events (yoga, dance, aerobics, etc) and then after school there could be programming for kids and teens. AND if there was a cafeteria (locally owned and not by a company) there could be breakfast, lunch and dinner served at a reasonable price. Maybe have people from the community work there.
The senior center in Newton is old and lousy. When do the current residents (who aren’t able to afford to join Lifetime or a golf club) get a center? Why is it always huge developments?
Jillian and NewtonMom – agreed, our current Senior Center is woefully inadequate. If you haven’t heard, the city has already committed to replace it with a new, much larger center that will be able to support more programs and activities over expanded hours. We are already a year into an ambitious project to design and build a new center.
The state agreed to sell the building to us for only $1 only if it is used for affordable housing. Arguing that the building should be used for anything other than affordable housing is a moot point.
Allison,
The center is ‘called’ a senior center but is actually open to everyone with a focus on social equality
Its not clear at all if this is a senior center or a community center. The mayor should not promise a senior center during her campaign and turn around and build something else
I can’t wait to hear the deliberations on this project. Does anybody recall the Crescent St / Reverend Ford Playground project that got shutdown? That was an affordable housing project that everybody loved and then soured? If I recall arguments that closed it down were about it not being profitable, no taxes etc.
So how is this different?
Who is going to do the work, and who is going to pay?
I do not like the Mayors Proposed Budget. It what the patch article is correct it appears the Mayor is on quite a spending spree. In two years it would appear our budget has gone up almost $110 million, or just over 25%.
https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/newton-mayor-announces-495k-budget-next-year
FY20 Budget $495 of that $236.3 million to education
FY19 Budget $412 million of that $227.6 million went to education.
FY18 Budget $388 million.
FY17 Budget projected expenditures was $379 million – of that 55 percent went to education
FY 16 Budget projected expenditures was $362 million – of that 56 percent went to education
FY 15 Budget projected expenditures was $345 million – of that 57 percent went to education
FY 14 Budget projected expenditures was $331 million – of that 57 percent went to education
@Simon: I posted this on the budget thread but will repeat it here.
There seems to be some misunderstanding about the proposed budget.
As outlined in the beginning of Mayor Fuller’s letter, the proposed operating budget for the city is $430.3 million.
The total enterprise budget funds for water, sewer and stormwater is $62.1 million. Those funds are derived from fees, not property taxes. In addition, there is also a $4.1 million budget for Community Preservation Funds derived from the CPA fee.
The total of all three is indeed $495 million. But the correct comparison to previous years’ operating budgets is to use the $430.3 million figure.
I agree with Bob Burke
@Paul Green: Pfft. It’s easy to agree with Bob Burke. He’s one of the most likeable guys in the city.
But how about Matt Lai agreeing with me? That’s a pigs fly moment if I’ve ever seen one! 😉
Simon makes a very good point. After property taxes and renovations and maintenance…will the city be operating this at a perpetual loss?
What is the threshold of income required to collect low enough rent just to break even?
Bugek, you need to add back in the various grant sources, CPA funds, HOME Funds, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, potentially state and federal historic tax credits (although don’t assume that this building would qualify, that is quite the rehab), etc.
Generally affordable housing projects needs some degree of size to make the subsidies work. It is possible to do smaller deals, but just because a deal is small doesn’t mean it is less complicated…or expensive.
I’m not sure what killed the other deal you mentioned, but sometimes total development costs or cost per unit gets in the way. Sometimes, it is just political. But relitigating the last deal’s failure is basically a recipe for never getting any projects across the finish line, and the fact that the land/building is basically donated here should be a huge help.
The Lynn version of this has more windows I think. I wonder how they will design around the building. You can put skylights in the top floor, but the floors below are going to be dark.
@fig
The Crescent St project shutdown was a disgrace. It was economically viable, with numbers to show it. The Mayor was originally behind it, but then changed her mind. And now we have her coming back telling us it affordable housing is dear to her heart. No doubt the rest of them who shut this down Crescent St will tell us the same. this time around, it will be interesting to see how they side step the arguments they made last time. Perhaps they might even chime in here and tell us why they shutdown Crescent st.
Simon’s right. The fact that the city already owned Crescent St (former Parks&Rec HQ, two moves back) was someone portrayed as a negative — because there would be no property tax revenue on the property. Even though there would still be positive cash flow on the property itself (not including impact on schools).