The wheels of change turn gradually onward at the Lenox/Camden public housing site. The two Boston Housing Authority properties include 357 units between them — 285 units at Lenox and 72 at Camden — and are due for an array of upgrades. The minimum list of property improvements includes better ventilation, new roofs, new boilers, new domestic hot water, new energy star windows, improvements to sidewalks and common areas, landscaping, accessibility improvements, new signage and masonry repointing as well as a level of bathroom and kitchen upgrades “to the greatest extent possible where needed,” according to BHA officials. Residents will be able to remain in units during the renovations and will not be displaced.
The exact shape of plans hinges on financing and need assessments. The Lenox/Camden rehabilitation plans were formally initiated when BHA officials issued a request for proposals in the summer of 2015. Last year, the selected developer, Beacon Communities LLC, started meeting with residents, assessing the building conditions and planning out the full scope of upgrades. This process is still underway.
“There’s no hard schedule yet at this point,” said Kate Bennett, deputy administrator for planning and sustainability. The extent of the work still is being determined and the financial strategy finalized. She estimated that the earliest construction may begin is at the end of 2018.
Funding holds sway over that timeline as well. Rehabilitation costs are estimated at about $100,000 per unit. The Camden units are state-funded, so may not qualify for some federal financial supports. Under an earlier idea being floated, the property would become mixed-income, with market-rate units added. The aim of that plan was for the higher rents on the market-rate units to subsidize rehabilitation of affordable units. However, Bennett said that idea now seems unlikely, as assessments suggest the market-rate apartments would not bring in sufficiently high rents to make the initiative worthwhile.
The Lenox portion of the development is federally-funded, and the BHA has applied for the Rental Assistance Demonstration program of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Receiving this RAD designation is expected to provide stronger funding options. Currently, the property is in a queue to receive the status. Bennett said she expects the RAD designation to come through later this year, but it is unsure exactly when, and that uncertainty is one factor making the Lenox/Camden timeline harder to settle.
Last week, BHA officials sought approval from the city council to get exemption from certain state-set contracting and procurement bidding process requirements. Seeking this relief is a matter of course for BHA on projects that use private developers for construction, and the exemption would not impact developers’ requirements to engage minorities and women for certain amounts of work hours.
“It’s a critical milestone to moving forward to get that relief,” Bennett said. “It’s a very restrictive, expensive process that we seek release from when a private developer is going to do the construction work.”
The housing authority has received such an exemption on more than ten other redevelopment projects. Mayor Martin Walsh filed a home rule petition calling for this exemption, and the city council assigned the matter to committee last week.
