Near Harvard University’s Allston campus, the sound of backhoes and drilling signal the start of a two-year long project to build a new low-income housing complex.
The housing complex, which Google Inc. recently invested $28 million in, will replace the current 40-year-old Section 8 housing complex located in Allston, according to the Boston Globe. Construction began in May and will continue until 2014.
“If it’s snowing, we’ll still be working,” said Tony Coward, a worker at the site.
Charlesview Inc., the nonprofit behind the complex, provides subsidized housing to tenants with low incomes, requiring rent payments reduced well below market value, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s website.
The Community Builders, Inc., the developer undertaking the construction of 340 units at the new site, is focused on “creating a place that people will care for and adapt as a part of a neighborhood, a place that will grow into a historical community,” said Jeff Beam, senior project manager of the redevelopment.
The new Charlesview Residences will sprawl out over more land than the original, and include spaces for small-business retailers, a park and a playground, large pedestrian walkways and bike paths, a community center and an underground parking garage, Beam said.
The development has been designed, he said, to stimulate the neighborhood and cater to its residents to create a community.
“Western Avenue doesn’t really have an identity yet,” Beam said, in reference to the location of the project.
He said that The Community Builders, Inc. hopes that the new Charlesview Residences will bring “character” and liveliness to the area by creating a place that “people love.”
Instead of the concrete construction of the current Charlesview, the new development will include a mix of townhouses and flats with more traditional roofs, windows and building materials, Beam said.
The construction contracts, he said, are “incredibly sophisticated” and “the best quality,” adding that the complex will meet or exceed the city’s benchmarks for environmentally conscious development.
The current Charlesview, residents said, is crumbling into disrepair.
Vince Anzalone, the former vice president of the tenant association, and Susan Hague said that their apartment, which they’ve lived in for more than a decade, is one of the nicest in the current complex.
Anzalone and Hague said that the rest of the complex hosts huge amounts of rodents. Many apartments have three-inch gaps between walls and ceilings, and requests for repairs are perpetually backlogged, they said.
Despite this, Anzalone said, Charlesview does not have a high turn-around rate for residents.
“I’ve had the same neighbors for about 12 years,” he said, and noted that many units have two generations of families living in them.
All of Charlesview’s current tenants have decided to move to the new complex in 2013, Hauge said, and Charlesview Inc. will provide either specifically contracted movers or a “moving stipend” to tenants.
About 90,000 Boston residents rely on Section 8 Housing, according to a report submitted in February by City Counselor Rob Consalvo. The waiting lists for existing housing programs are “many years long,” according to the report.
Tenants who qualify for Section 8 housing generally must allot 30 percent of their income to paying rent, and the federal government pays the difference, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website.
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