Malden Redevelopment Authority to Host Affordable Housing Lottery Information Session

The Malden Redevelopment Authority will be hosting an affordable housing lottery information session Wednesday night at Malden Government Center, according to Deborah Burke, assistant executive director of the MRA.

The info session is slated for 6 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Council Chamber.

The MRA will be selling a renovated single-family home, located at 960 Main St., for $275,000 to an income-eligible buyer during a lottery set for 6 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Council Chamber.

"This was a former vacant one-story property used as a sales office for memorials (monuments, cemeteries)," wrote Burke in an email to Malden Patch, adding that Stoneham-based Pecci Construction won the bid and handled the renovations. "It was renovated and remodeled into a two-story, two-bedroom single-family home. The property was gutted to the studs and new utilities brought in to accommodate an entirely new interior layout, which includes two new bathrooms, new kitchen and new heating and air conditioning system."

Features of the renovated home include two beds, cathedral ceilings, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, forces hot air furnace, corner lot, two-car driveway, 10-by-20 rear deck and central air conditioning, according to a lottery flyer. Eligibility and requirements are also outlined on the flyer.

Burke said the house was situated on a stretch of land located between 960-978 Main St. and listed on Mayor Gary Christenson's Problem Properties list. The mayor and Ward Four Councillor James Nestor asked the MRA to intervene and assemble the entire blighted site, she added.

"All of the properties were privately owned. The MRA negotiated the sale of each property (and it) owns the entire block now," Burke said. "An adjacent vacant commercial building next to the now remodeled home was demolished, the land converted into two single-family house lots and the MRA is out to bid now for a contractor to build those two homes per architectural drawings the agency commissioned.

"The next phase will be the demolition of the next vacant commercial property  and in its places the MRA will act as its own general contractor to build six townhouses per plans approved by Planning Board and Board of Appeal," she added.

According to Burke, the upcoming MRA lottery will be the first for a single-family home in Malden. However, the MRA has had several lotteries for affordable units in condominium projects across the city, she noted.

"The MRA used federal community development block grant funds on the renovation of this home," Burke said. "As such there is a requirement that the home be sold to a moderate income buyer and a lottery is the fairest way to (sell) the property to qualified low/moderate income buyers."

The deadline to submit a lottery application is 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4 at the Malden Redevelopment Authority, located in Room 621 at Malden Government Center. Click here for application. 

For more information, call 781-324-5720.