Housing crisis: New vouchers aim to help house the homeless

Table Of Content

• From Fried Seafood to Luxurious Shellfish Towers, the Banks Fish House Has Arrived
• Rhode Island
• There’s a Smorgasbord of Boston Food Festivals Happening This Weekend
• Can private landlords help ease the shelter crisis in Mass.? A new program is trying to find out.
• All sharing options for:
• All ingredients courtesy of Mother Nature and other quality purveyors
• Rhode Island News

It’s also in the fanciest of the restaurant’s three seafood towers, accompanying enough shellfish, lobster, and crudo to feed six to eight people. The 30-year-old has spent the last two-and-a-half years, the entirety of her son’s young life, bouncing between congregate shelters and apartments owned by shelter providers, frustrated by the affordable housing application process. The effort is a nod to the fact that the state’s worsening shelter crisis is deeply intertwined with its housing crisis. Even with vouchers that can cover much of the cost, families in the shelter system often struggle to find a permanent home. Affordable housing applications are complicated, waitlists are long, and there are simply too few truly affordable apartments to go around. Over the last two years, Tiffani DeVincent-Clarke has shuffled through three different homes within the state shelter system.

From Fried Seafood to Luxurious Shellfish Towers, the Banks Fish House Has Arrived

The rotating selection will always include Island Creek oysters from Duxbury, Massachusetts; something from Maine, such as Snow Island or Mookie Blue oysters; a couple West Coast options; and more. Watch for one of Sisca’s local favorites, South Bay Blondes from Onset, Massachusetts. Sisca’s years in Rhode Island, for example, inspired a Point Judith calamari dish, served with pickled peppers, jalapenos, and a blue claw crab ragu based on a sauce his mother made while he was growing up. From Sisca’s time in Boston, there are fried artichokes, which used to be a fan favorite on the Bistro du Midi menu, served here with an Old Bay aioli. But early next month, DeVincent-Clarke and her daughter will finally have a place to call home, a sparkling two-bedroom with a balcony and modern appliances in a small building near Central Square in Cambridge, where she grew up and still has family nearby.

Rhode Island

It’s the sort of place many everyday renters would jump at the chance to lease but — with comparable units renting for at least $3,500 a month — probably couldn’t afford. The shelter in Salem was too far from the doctors who help DeVincent-Clarke manage her Crohn’s disease and care for her 2-year-old daughter, who was born prematurely and has spent her whole life in the shelter system. At times, DeVincent-Clarke, who works as a home health aide, felt like there was no way out of her situation. The Banks Fish House is currently open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday and lunch Tuesday through Friday, with brunch coming soon.

There’s a Smorgasbord of Boston Food Festivals Happening This Weekend

Another nod to the PEI fishing trips, the grilled bluefin tuna steak — served rare or however you want — comes with grilled artichokes and “almost a ratatouille or caponata” of roasted eggplants, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and green olives. There’s also a simple margherita flatbread as well as a cioppino (prawns, squid, mussels, Gruyere). For the cioppino, Sisca takes some of the broth for the Banks’s lobster bake and reduces it down with tomato sauce.

The 11 Best Seafood Restaurants in Boston - Thrillist

The 11 Best Seafood Restaurants in Boston.

Posted: Thu, 22 Jul 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

There’s seating on both floors — including several private dining areas — and the large space includes several fireplaces, a raw bar, two bars, an open kitchen, and Back Bay views. Reserve a table online to get a taste of the culmination of Sisca and Himmel’s years as fishermen. Opened in the spring of 2000, and located on A1A, just across the street from beautiful New Smyrna beach, Boston’s Fish House is a family owned and operated restaurant that specializes in New England Style Seafood.

Can private landlords help ease the shelter crisis in Mass.? A new program is trying to find out.

All of our fried items are breaded and fried to order in high quality vegetable oil, which we change every day to ensure your food is fresh and healthy. Items are also available blackened, baked with cracker crumb topping, broiled in sweet butter, or broiled with Cajun spices. Our dedication to customer service and experienced wait staff ensure a wicked good time to all customers. Trevor Samios, a senior vice president at Boston-based affordable housing giant WinnCompanies, said his company is reviewing its dozens of properties in Massachusetts for units that could be set aside for the program.

First, she lived in Salem, then Mattapan, and for the past four months, an apartment owned by a homeless services nonprofit in Cambridge. Next month, through the rapid housing program, she’s moving into a two-bedroom in Brookline, where that sort of apartment typically runs between $3,500 and $4,000. It’s a place where she knows she’ll have access to good schools and plenty of playgrounds for her son. Some of the landlords who’ve opened up units cite a sense of moral obligation, but even so, they acknowledge, they need enough rent to pay the bills. The agency has already recruited some of Greater Boston’s bigger apartment owners — WinnCompanies, Capstone Communities, and Peabody Properties — to identify units for the program, in exchange for a state incentive.

All ingredients courtesy of Mother Nature and other quality purveyors

We also offer broiled specialties as well 4 different ways-broiled in sweet butter, with garlic and wine, with Cajun spices, topped with Ritz crackers. Our unique serving style and experienced wait staff ensure a wicked good time to all customers. The Rapid Housing Initiative is an experiment launched by Metro Housing Boston, a nonprofit agency that administers federal rental vouchers and other housing assistance in Greater Boston. The program aims to help shelter residents who have received one of the new housing vouchers, which cover a large portion of a resident’s rent on the private market, but are struggling to find a landlord who will accept it. Our seafood is flown in from Boston several times a week to ensure that we serve the finest product available.

In October, the Healey administration announced a new pool of 1,200 vouchers — a mix of federal Section 8 vouchers and state-funded rental vouchers — to help get shelter residents into more permanent housing. The federal vouchers pay landlords a set amount based on geography and unit size, up to $3,060 for a two-bedroom in East Boston, for example. Whether you live in the area, or a planning to visit for a vacation, we'd love to have the opportunity to take care of you. The fried whole belly clam dish, pictured above, is one of several fried seafood dishes at the Banks; it’s served with fries and lemon tarragon remoulade.

Part of the state’s pitch is that the vouchers pay a competitive rent, one that matches what landlords might get from another tenant. Landlords can also get a $4,000 one-time bonus for each tenant they take in with one of the vouchers, and the state is also simplifying the process of inspecting apartments typically required before leasing to a voucher tenant. The Banks’s raw oysters are pictured here with a tin of the restaurant’s own osetra caviar, sourced via Regiis Ova; there’s also Island Creek white sturgeon caviar and Black River imperial osetra from Uruguay. Diners can add caviar to anything or order it on its own with creme fraiche, blini, and hash browns.

Boston's Fish House & Bar brings East Coast freshness to the desert - Las Vegas Weekly

Boston's Fish House & Bar brings East Coast freshness to the desert.

Posted: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Ortiz came to the US from the Dominican Republic in 2019, and lost the room she shared when she became pregnant because her landlord did not want a child in the apartment. So far, 947 of the emergency vouchers have been issued, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. But only 245 people have successfully used their vouchers to lease an apartment. The tuna steak and halibut join a handful of other seafood entrees on the menu, including a Dover sole meuniere, cuttlefish spaghetti, and — a favorite of Sisca’s kids — crispy fish tacos.

There’s also a fried fishermen’s platter with haddock, shrimp, and scallops, each prepared in a different batter and fried at a different temperature in a different basket “to make it perfect,” says Sisca. The platter comes with a “sea chi” remoulade, made with kelp-based kimchi from Atlantic Sea Farms in Maine. Our seafood is flown in from Boston several times a week to ensure that we serve the finest product available; all of our fried items are breaded and fried to order in high quality canola oil, which we change every day to ensure your food is fresh and healthy.

The idea behind the Rapid Housing program is to broaden the pool of units that shelter residents can access. Most lack the income to compete for market-rate apartments, particularly in places like Cambridge where services are plenty but two-bedroom apartments often fetch $3,000 a month or more — not to mention upfront costs that can equal three months of rent. Participating landlords commit to identifying apartments for shelter residents, and the vouchers cover most of the rent.