City prepares four affordable housing units for public lottery

Four lucky households chosen by lottery may soon move into city-owned affordable housing.

Two of the units are three-bedroom single-family homes on Mount Walley Road, bordering the Jericho Hill farm formerly owned by the Arrigo family. The other two are apartments in Cardinal Cottage on the edge of the Fernald property.

The announcement came at this week’s board of trustees meeting for the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Officials said the Purchasing Department is preparing an application package for prospective residents of the Mount Walley Road homes. The city recently renamed them Mac’s Place and Arrigo’s Place.

Housing Director Colette Casey-Brenner said the buildings are move-in ready. The city wants to move forward quickly so tenants can pay to heat the building over the winter, since it wants to avoid heating empty buildings.

While the city only purchased Mac’s Place and Arrigo’s Place, city officials have wanted to convert Cardinal Cottage into affordable housing since 2017. 

The city plans to open similar applications for the cottage’s two apartments. Casey-Brenner explained that because the Cardinal Cottage apartments have only two bedrooms each, unlike Mac’s and Arrigo’s three, the city will open applications separately later in the year to avoid confusion.

After the city screens applications for eligibility, it will select residents via blind lottery — the first housing lottery since the one for the Nahum Hardy Residences in 2012, said Casey-Brenner. She said the city will prioritize veteran applicants for both houses, and will accept applications for groups of three unrelated roommates or families of three to five people.

Additionally, at the meeting, trustees:

• Heard an update on renovations to the former Elks lodge, which the city plans to run as a lodging house for women and families. Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy said city workers have rewired much of the building and made a preliminary estimate of how many housing units it can contain. She added that the city hired an architect to design an elevator system for the building and estimated that the MAHTF likely already has all the funding it needs to complete the project. 
• Received an update on the city’s Nahum Hardy Residences, which is currently at full occupancy, charging rents calculated to be affordable for households making 40–45% of the area median income. The city is currently repairing the building’s elevator.
• Postponed a decision judgment on boutique hotel Dyer’s Crescent Suites. The owner currently has permission to rent 14 of the building’s 30 units for long-term stays, but wants to convert the entire building into apartments. He requested a determination from the MAHTF on how many units Waltham would require to be priced affordably, since the hotel was created before Waltham’s affordability statutes were enacted. Trustees asked him to return after proposing the project to the City Council and receiving a decision.