SALEM — The Salem Mission was awarded $200,000 yesterday for its new housing project, the conversion of the former St. Mary's Italian Church into 20 studio apartments for the homeless.
The North Shore Home Consortium, which is based in Peabody, approved the grant yesterday, part of $1 million it handed out in federal affordable housing funds. The consortium represents 30 cities and towns on the North Shore and in the Merrimack Valley.
This is the first major award for the Salem Mission's Seeds of Hope Phase III project, which is expected to cost more than $3 million. The controversial plan has sparked a counterproposal from an arts organization, opposition from a neighborhood group and is the subject of a City Council meeting Monday night.
The North Shore Home Consortium, in a competitive grant program, also awarded $200,000 to Help for Abused Women and their Children (now called Healing Abuse Working for Change) for rental subsidies for families in flight; $120,000 to the North Shore Chapter of Habitat for Humanity for a rehabilitation project in Peabody; and $170,000 to Beverly-based Harborlight Community Partners Inc., for projects in Beverly and Hamilton.







