By Sharron Luttrell

Town officials hoped to give Mendon’s affordable housing stock a significant boost by opening municipal land to a mixed-income development, but after plans proved prohibitively expensive, they’ve turned to a smaller-scale approach to address the high cost of homes.

The town will sell a Cape-style house at 75 Providence Street through the affordable housing lottery process, then use the proceeds to help fund more affordable units on the land. The house and adjacent barn sit on 59.5 acres the town purchased in 2024 using Community Preservation Act funds.

“One house that’s affordable doesn’t seem like a lot, but I still think it is,” Town Planner Dylan Lindholm said. “We can handle one house, fix it up, make it nice and get one family in there.” 

Lindholm and the Community Preservation Committee came up with the plan after other options didn’t work out. A grant-funded feasibility study last year looked at building 33 duplexes on the land, with half set aside as affordable. The only way it would make sense financially for a developer, however, is if the town contributed $7 million to the project, Lindholm said.

The town has neither the infrastructure nor the budget for that, she said.

The study came on the heels of a failed attempt to put affordable housing at 52 Providence Street, which the town bought in 2014. A request for proposals in 2023 to develop the 69.7 acres by the senior center to include affordable homes came up empty, even after the town sweetened the deal by offering to design a wetlands crossing and to get Department of Environmental Protection approval for a shared well for the development.

Wetlands block most of the property’s frontage, which pose a challenge to builders. That, along with the town’s lack of public water or sewer, made it too expensive to develop, Lindholm said.

Priced out of Mendon

The town has shelved both ideas for the time being. But Lindholm says she fields phone calls every few weeks from people asking about affordable housing in Mendon. These are people who grew up in town or work here, but can’t afford to buy a home. Other callers have raised their families in Mendon and are ready to downsize. They don’t want to leave town, but are finding nothing here that meets their needs, she said.

Just 1.8% of Mendon’s 2,126 homes are designated as affordable. Mendon’s master plan specifies a goal of working toward 10% affordable housing while preserving Mendon’s small-town rural heritage. 

Municipalities that fall short of 10% affordable housing are subject to Chapter 40B developments, which allow developers to bypass local zoning bylaws in exchange for setting aside 25% of their housing as affordable.

A home is considered affordable if monthly housing costs, including mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance, are 30% or less of the homeowner’s income. Eligibility for affordable housing varies by program and is typically limited to those who earn no more than  80% of the area median income. In Mendon, that ranges from $74,800 for a single-member household to $106,800 for a family of four.

While the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the median home price in Mendon as $616,000, Redfin puts the number at $790,727 for the three months ending August 2026, while Realtor.com’s figure for September is $767,500. 

Plans for 73 and 75 Providence Street

Mendon has used CPA funding to hire an engineering company to draw up a plan to potentially add four more affordable units on the property formerly owned by the Paddock family.

The majority of the land will be devoted to open space and possibly a recreational field while the front portion of the property where the house and barn are located would be reserved for affordable housing. The property also abuts 25 acres of open space that was donated through the Applewood open space subdivision.

The goal is to have one of the units use the historic barn foundation and build a similar barn-like structure for an affordable unit. The barn is not stable enough for housing and would need to be demolished. 

While the Community Preservation Committee and the town planner wait for the engineering firm’s results, they will focus on getting the house market-ready.  

“We’re not going to worry about getting to that 10% right now, but will focus on the people who need the homes, need a place to live, want a place to live, who can call a place their own. I think that’s more important than trying to meet the 10% threshold,” Lindholm said. “People want a place to call their own, especially people who have lived here all their lives.”

Where to go for help

For information about how to afford a home, visit My Mass Home. You can also sign up for alerts when a deed-restricted affordable home hits the market in the area.

Photo top of page: The house and area where the barn stands at 75 Providence Street are being eyed for affordable housing. (Sharron Luttrell)