Officials Looking to Expand North Brookline Affordable-Housing Complex

Selectmen have OKed a $109,000 loan to the Brookline Housing Authority to help kick start a $21 million affordable-housing project on the Boston border.

If funded, the project could include a 32-unit building and underground garage on the site of a parking lot to the rear of the Trustman Apartments, which encompasses an entire block between Dummer and Egmont Streets in North Brookline. The BHA is seeking state dollars to help pay for the project, but would likely rely on some local funding as well.

"We're always looking for good quality projects and this is certainly one we would support," said Rufus Phillips, vice-chairman of the Brookline Housing Advisory Board.

Though the project would still need to be vetted by Brookline's planning and zoning boards, housing officials are seeking the town's help in preparing an application for extremely competitive housing grants from the state. In addition to the loan, town officials have had to demonstrate the availability of $1.7 million in funding for project, though the town is not obligated to spend the money.

The loan will help the BHA pay for design, appraisal and legal work required by the grant application process and would be paid back once the authority has funding for construction of the project. The town made a similar loan to kick start development at St. Aidan's Church.

Housing officials said the new project would help address an unmet need for affordable housing in Brookline, noting that the authority received 454 applications during the lottery for 14 units at St. Aidan's last year.

David Trietsch, the chair of the BHA's Board of Commissioners, said the parking lot behind the Trustman Apartments is one of the few remaining spaces in Brookline where the town could build new affordable housing.

"This is a site we've been looking at for a number of years," he said.

The proposed building would include four stories and sit against Dummer Street, though entrances would be oriented toward the courtyard behind an affordable housing complex on Egmont Street. Any shadows cast by the new building would fall onto a row of commercial buildings facing Commonwealth Avenue, according to Trietsch

Current plans calls for a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, all available to residents with an income at or below 60 percent of the area median. Some units would be set aside for residents with even lower income levels.

Trietsch promised a full public vetting of the project before any shovels hit the dirt.

"We know this is Brookline," he said. "We're going to have a really thorough process."