Finish Line in Sight for Franklin Affordable Housing Project

Hard Bargain

If you have driven down Mt. Hope Street, on the north end of the Mt. Hope Cemetery, you might have noticed a few houses being built.

The construction comes as the end of a years-long process by Hard Bargain Association (HBA) to build affordable housing on a lot it bought in 2007.

It bought two lots equalling about an acre of land at 727 Mount Hope Street in Franklin, and ever since has been trying to get six houses, ranging up to about 1,400 square feet, there.

In 2009, David Crane of Crane Builders, operating cost-free, built the first one but it took until April of this year to start construction on the rest.

Currently, Crane Builders is on schedule to finish the second and third houses by late October before starting two more. All six could be finished by this time next year.

“It has been a lot of waiting,” Brant Bousquet, executive director of HBA, said. “A lot of times funding has kept us from moving quicker, and then things with the City of Franklin and having to go back to the drawing board and redo stuff. And getting money through the Community Development Block Grant Program.”

After the waiting, infrastructure work began in the spring.

He estimates the total cost of the project at $1.2 million. Through donations, grants and other funding,the houses will provide low-to-moderate income families with much needed affordable housing.

HBA sells the houses at well below market value to individuals who have completed a screening process, in which income and need were examined. HBA also works with applicants to improve their credit and requires them to take homeowner courses.

HBA also bought an adjacent lot, behind the Mount Hope Street lot, on Glass Lane. Currently it is a community garden but HBA plans will eventually turn it into a little park with a playground and basketball hoop.

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