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Abbi Matheson The project to turn the former Arlington Heights Methodist church , located at the corner of Westminster and Lowell Streets, into nine affordable housing units has secured additional state , funding. The 20 Westminster Ave. project is slated to cost $3,975,762. Key funding came from a new Massachusetts state program , Community- Scale Housing Initiative (CSHI), which contributed $320,000 to the Westminster project. This initiative is a new, joint pilot program from the Department of Housing and Community Development and state affordable housing finance agency MassHousing . The funds go towards the creation of smaller scale affordable housing projects . Arlington is one of the first communities to receive funding from the CSHI. “I am thrilled that our community has been awarded this grant to help increase the availability of affordable housing in Arlington,” state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington stated in a press release. The town of Arlington contributed ...

Cities must do more to ensure that investments in energy efficiency reach the low- and moderate-income households that bear the heaviest burden from high energy costs via Shutterstock By Laurie Mazur As the saying goes, “The poor pay more.” This is certainly true when it comes to energy costs: Low-income households (both owners and renters) pay more for energy per square foot than their affluent counterparts. And as a percentage of income, low- and moderate- income families pay up to three times more than average on utility bills. Energy efficiency is part of the solution: It can reduce energy burdens by as much as 30 percent. But even the best- intentioned efficiency programs often fail to reach low- and moderate-income households. Those households may not be able to take advantage of incentives because they lack the upfront capital to invest in efficiency upgrades, for example. And they lose out on tax incentives because they don’t live in high- efficiency housing or can’t af...