Boston Is Building an Apartment Complex for Its Homeless Residents
When it comes to tackling homelessness, cities are developing new models. This year, Los Angeles opened two tiny home villages using colorful shelters from builder Pallet Shelter. Last month, Salt Lake City released plans for its own village, but with added amenities (think: downtown area with shops, dog park, community gardens). Meanwhile, Boston is experimenting with apartment buildings.
Boston will soon have a new apartment building that will provide housing for its homeless residents as well as offer traditional affordable housing for other city residents. RODE Architects and The Community Builders (TCB), a nonprofit developer of mixed-income housing, and homeless services agency Pine Street Inn (PSI) are currently building a new complex in Jamaica Plain, per a news release.
This new building will replace an already existing warehouse and will contain 140 units for the homeless and 62 income-controlled units. It will also include office space, community space and amenities, and social services on-site for residents. Vehicle parking spaces, bicycle storage spaces, and a large outdoor space have also been implemented into the design plans. RODE Architects shared a few renderings of the proposed building on Instagram, which can be viewed below.
These plans were introduced in 2019, but put on hold until earlier this month. According to The Boston Globe, there was a dispute about the limited number of parking spaces being offered that delayed the project. Local business owners were concerned that a deficit of parking spaces for the apartment building would cause residents and/or workers to take up street parking and make it harder for paying customers to find parking. While many residents would not have cars, it was expected that those paying rent might. The building's employees would also need parking.
In the same vein, plans to restore a crumbling 10-unit apartment into apartments for the homeless in a different area of Boston were rejected last month because no parking spaces were offered for residents or workers, as shown in this Zoning Board of Appeal hearing. While apartment buildings seem like a solid choice when it comes to housing the homeless, they come with added obstacles, especially when being built in busy parts of the city.
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