MEADOWBROOK:

PART ONE

the complex looked pretty good when I drove through it this spring. The grounds were clean, the buildings were sparkling, and the lawns were trimmed and free of debris. It looked to be a model of what affordable housing ought to be, especially if contrasted to Hampshire Heights just down the road. But there were a few jarring notes: the two late model Jaguars, a new BMW with out of state plates hiding under a car cover and the brand-new white Escalade in the parking lot. There were, as I understood it, income limits for households $38,700, for example, for a three person family. Who were these deep-pocketed people?

For the Article, go to Part One

 

THE DARK YEARS

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 12, 2008

When the deal that saved Meadowbrook as affordable housing was announced in 2005, it seemed like one of the legendary “no-brainer” affairs. Harold Grinspoon was out, he sold good liberal people the complex; new money went into rehab, the place was painted and fixed up.

It looked like a good deal, but the price that the taxpayers paid was an expensive one, and no one here knew anything about the new group, POAH (Preservation Of Affordable Housing) that was taking it over.  Aspen Square had bought it for nine million, and after three years of on and off again negotiations, sold the development for $18 million. Grinspoon doubled his money and got out.

  For the article go to: PART TWO

             THE FLOOD: CAUSED BY THE CITY?

Stand in the backyards of Meadowbrook and you look up to Straw Avenue and the backyards of Florence.  The complex was built in a low-lying swampy area.  A number of small streams feed its pond, and under the ground flows another kind of river in a pipe.  A regional supervisor for  POAH (Preservation Of Affordable Housing, Inc.), the owner of Meadowbrook Apartments,  told me today that “All indications are that the blockage was not in the private lines.”  He said that the lines owned by the housing complex were free and clear.  Indeed, a tenant in building four told me that a firm hired by management had rodded out and flushed the line only one week before the incident, which displaced seven families.

For the article go to  THE FLOOD