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Rachel Ghazaleh calls Allston paradise.
"This is my home, my island," said
the beaming 31-year-old single mother
of two young boys as she showed off her two-bedroom apartment, one of 50
new
flats and townhouses built in the neighborhood.
Why
does she think her Allston home is heavenly? For one, there are
other families in the development for her children to play with. For another,
the curtains throughout the apartment, from the kitchen to the bathroom,
all
feature palm trees. And finally and most importantly, her place is affordable.
"I was going
to move out of the neighborhood if I didn't get one of these
apartments," said Ghazaleh of her winning ticket in a city lottery
for the first
affordable family housing opened in the neighborhood in 15 years.
"I wouldn't
have been able to afford an apartment here. They only rent to
college kids over here. They don't have a lot of apartments for families," she
said, speaking at the dedication of the new Brian J. Honan Apartments complex
on
Everett Street last month.
The scarcity of
family housing in Allston reflects a citywide problem, as
fewer families with children are unable to find homes they can afford.
The
number of households with children under 18 has declined overall from 1990
to
2000 throughout Boston neighbor hoods, Census figures show. In the side-by-side
neighborhoods of Allston-Brighton alone, the number of households during
that
decade increased by more than 1,000, while family households dropped by
695,
according to the Census.
Allston-Brighton
has long been characterized as a haven for college
students and young singles who flock to it for its off-campus rental housing
stock. As they have hooked up with multiple housemates to meet rising rents,
families have moved out.
To counter that
movement and help keep families rooted in Allston, the
local community development corporation four years ago began taking on
the task
of converting a former Legal Sea Foods warehouse into housing.
The result the
$15 million nine-building complex named after the
much-admired City Councilor Hogan, who died at 39 in 2002 has the feel
of a
cul-de-sac tailor-made for families with children. A playground at one
end
offers the new kids on the block a place to romp.
Demand for affordable
housing for middle-class families was clear: 500 of
them 300 from Allston-Brighton threw their hats into the ring for 50 slots.
They
all vied for 11 one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units, and 10 three-bedroom
units.
"It's getting
harder and harder for families to stay in this neighborhood,
" said Bob Van Meter, executive director of the Allston Brighton Community
Development Corporation, which oversaw the project, joined by the city
of
Boston, Bank of America, and other local agencies.
"A major obstacle
is just the price of housing and the fact that families
that have one or two incomes are competing with groups of young people,
some
students, some not, for scarce rental housing," said Van Meter. "If
a family
needs a three-bedroom apartment and can afford $1,100 or $1,200, they may
be
competing against a group of young people who either have an income or
parental
support."
Harvard University,
which owns more than 200 acres in Allston and whose
expanding presence has long been an issue in the neighborhood, donated
$2.8
million to the Honan project. The university has been working with the
Boston
Redevelopment Authority as well as residents and the local CDC to develop
clear
guidelines for its future development, though there are no immediate plans
for
more family-oriented affordable housing, Van Meter said.
Tom Meagher, president
of Northeast Apartment Advisors, which tracks
Greater Boston housing trends, said people can't afford newly built housing
in
the city unless they are making at least the median income or have a subsidy.
A
report issued last month by the Boston Foundation and the Citizens' Housing
and
Planning Association found that a family of four living in the Boston area
would
need to make $64,656 to make ends meet last year.
Meagher said the Honan Apartments "certainly
will have an impact in
retaining families in the city who are of moderate means," but said
more needs
to be done.
This summer, St.
Anthony's School in Allston was shuttered by the
Archdiocese of Boston after enrollment dropped from 187 students last year
to
94; that followed the closing of Our Lady of the Presentation school in
June.
"This is about families, about
making this their home," Van Meter said at
last month's dedication of the new complex, which drew politicians from
Mayor
Thomas Menino to city councilors and local state representatives.
Community leaders say that the housing
development "reknits" the
neighborhood with a playground and the Hano Homes, developed by the community
development group in the 1980s.
For two years,
Ghazaleh watched the blossoming of the Honan Apartments
from her old apartment three blocks away. She was living in a $1,350-a-month
unit inside a complex of mostly elderly residents. She said children weren't
welcomed there.
"If the kids touched the grass,
the management would get upset," she said.
So she began a
local apartment hunt for a place where kids can play and
not worry about cranky neighbors. She found nothing she could afford until
she
hit the Honan lottery.
On a recent Friday,
dressed in a lavender striped suit, Ghazaleh played
unofficial tour guide for a reporter on the wonders of her new development.
With enthusiasm,
she pointed out the new benches and flowers that line the
main entrance of the development, off Everett Street. The buildings differ
in
color, from a soft dark green to a light lime to what Ghazaleh calls "cafe
con
crema," coffee with cream. (That's her building, by the way. Yards
are
bordered with knee-high black fences. Ghazaleh added a swing in the backyard
of
her unit, as well as patio table and chairs, to make it more homey.
She enjoys the
new community because she says it's reflective of Allston
overall: middle-class families with diverse backgrounds, many from places
as
far-ranging as Sudan to the Dominican Republic.
As the tour proceeds,
Ghazaleh enumerated who's who on her block by the
dishes they make.
Across the street is "the woman
who makes the best mango juice," she said,
offering you some from her refrigerator later on. "Over there, " she
said,
pointing to another unit diagonal from hers, "is the woman who makes
baked
macaroni-and-cheese.
"We all trade foods and we watch
each other's kids," she said. On
weekends, the new neighbors gather for their own ethnic barbecue featuring
small
Latin hot dogs, Puerto Rican beans and rice, and that homemade mango juice.
"This is our home," Ghazaleh
said.
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