Revere’s Shaw remains committed to Hichborn Street project

REVERE – Housing Authority Director Linda Shaw is sticking by her plan to sell several state-funded public housing buildings and using the proceeds to fix up other residences.State housing officials have yet to sign off on her plan, including a request to use money raised from the sale of the Hichborn property and other buildings on Dana Street, Walnut Avenue and 65 Thornton St. to pay for improvements to 10 other residential properties.”I requested two years ago in writing the opportunity to tear down or sell the properties. I still haven’t got a response. They tell me they will get back to me,” Shaw said.The Authority’s housing portfolio lists in its recently released annual report 12 apartments in two public housing buildings on Hichborn.Another three are located at 65 Thornton along with three at Dana Street and seven in the Walnut Avenue buildings. She said these properties and the Hichborn buildings have not been neglected during the Authority’s push to sell and demolish them.”We’ve done a lot in two years. That property is always on my list.”The Authority manages 899 public housing apartments in Revere, including family-sized units paid for with federal tax dollars and family, elderly and veterans apartments paid for by the state.The Authority is moving ahead with plans to renovate three buildings with 46 apartments on Eliot Road and Garfield Avenue and converting 280 state-funded apartments from oil heat to natural gas.State housing officials are working with the Authority on the Eliot-Garfield modernization and Stephen Baker, an architect who worked with the Cambridge public housing authority, will design the modernization project.