Confronting affordable-housing challenges in Malden
To say that the demand for affordable housing has increased since Malden’s strategic five-year plan (2010-2014) and its 2010 master plan were formulated would be stating the obvious. City, state and federal funding has been spent with good intentions and a number of positive results to “preserve” and “expand” affordable housing for Malden’s low- and moderate-income residents. With funding resources dwindling and the debate as to how those funds would best serve those in need, it will have to be decided if temporary or permanent shelter is the way to go — although some school of thought suggests that window of opportunity has closed since millions have already been spent on temporary shelters. According to a December 2013 Boston Globe article by Megan Woolhouse and David Abel: “Record numbers of homeless families are overwhelming the state’s emergency shelter system, filling motel rooms at the cost to taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars a year. In the past five years, state spending on motels has exploded to more than $46 million from about $1 million […]
