$1M grant to build housing.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Elaine Thompson

SHREWSBURY - The Shrewsbury Housing Authority has received a $1 million grant to develop five units of affordable family housing.

The grant from the state Department of Community and Housing Development depends on the final cost of construction, said SHA Executive Director Dennis M. Osborne, with the grant amount being increased if the five units cost more than $1 million. He said more than 250 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing, and hundreds of elderly are waiting for senior housing. The lists are open to anyone in the state.

"We never quench the need,'' Mr. Osborne said. "We have so few units, when people move in they don't tend to leave."

The town just completed construction of two five-bedroom congregate homes on Lake Street, across from the Irving A. Glavin Regional Center, a state-run group home for the mentally retarded. The homes will provide a residential setting for 10 clients of the center. An initial $1 million grant was increased by $900,000 to cover the final cost of $1.9 million, Mr. Osborne said.

The new project, to be called Ridgeland Road Housing, will consist of three two-bedroom and two one-bedroom apartments to be built on a lot at South Quinsigamond Avenue and Ridgeland Road. This is one of the lots that the town gave to the Housing...