Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services (MHNHS) is expecting the 39-unit, affordable rental building for seniors on Gurney Street to be ready for move-in by May. The $15.9 million, transit-oriented project has been planned for several years.
MHNHS executive Director Pat Flaherty told the Gazette that while the winter storms have delayed construction, the project will be ready to move in only a few weeks behind schedule.
The half-acre site located a block away from the Roxbury Crossing MBTA Station will be a four-story, wheelchair- accessible and green building with one-bedroom units averaging 540 square feet. Social amenities at the building will include a large community space at the ground level with handicap accessible bathrooms and kitchen and smaller community space on the upper floors offering the opportunity for many types of programming for its elderly residents.
“We’re very excited about being ready for our occupants this spring,” she told the Gazette this week.
The project is currently undergoing interior finishing and utility work.
The resident lottery was already completed in December.Some of the land for this project was donated by Wentworth Institute of Technology. That parcel has been vacant since the 1960s, when the government proposed to extend I-95 through the area and began buying up and demolishing houses before community organizers halted the expansion.
The Gurney Street senior housing project under construction this week. (Gazette Photo by Rebeca Oliveira)