City to help fund Ashmont housing developments

Ashmont Tire : City approval secured this week.Ashmont Tire : City approval secured this week.

The city will provide funding for Harmon Apartments and Ashmont TOD II, two significant proposed housing developments in Ashmont, Mayor Martin Walsh announced on Monday.

In all, Walsh announced $39 million allocated to affordable housing developments in the city. The funding is comprised of $27 million from the Department of Neighborhood Development and $11.7 million through Boston’s Neighborhood Housing Trust.

Also in Dorchester, Walsh has approved funding for Wayne at Bicknell, creating affordable 72 units, all of them affordable; Talbot Commons Phase I in Codman Square creating 40 affordable units; and the Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure Inc.’s Greater Four Corners Pilot Project, which will create 10 affordable housing units.

Harmon Apartments is proposed by The Boston Home, and will be sited on the facility’s grounds on Dorchester Avenue. The development will create 39 units of mixed income rental housing for individuals and families with progressive neurological disabilities. Thirty three of those units will be affordable, according to the city. Harmon Apartments has also emerged as a contentious development along Dorchester Avenue as The Boston Home hopes to create affordable housing for residents suffering from multiple sclerosis. Neighbors are concerned about the apartments' proposed low-income status and the impact on traffic in the already congested area south of Ashmont Station.

Ashmont TOD II, proposed for the current Ashmont Tire location on Dorchester Avenue across from the Carruth building, will create 87 units of housing–53 of them affordable. The project is developed by Trinity Financial, same group behind the Carruth across the street, and has been under revision by planners over the last few months as planners iron out approvals and funding sources.

By funding the developments including Harmon Apartments and Ashmont Tire, the city is creating or preserving 1,194 housing units, creating roughly 1,200 construction jobs, and setting aside 196 units for homeless or extremely low-income families, Walsh’s office said.

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