Pittsfield Affordable Housing Trust Plans Further Outreach
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Affordable Housing Trust plans to solicit more input on community needs and is looking at how to be directly involved with developers.
"People took two hours, 2 1/2 hours out of their evening to come to [Conte Community School,]" Trustee Kamaar Taliaferro said in reference to a community meeting that was held last month.
"That shows the desperation but also the commitment from our community to try to get this right."
Last week, the panel recapped testimony it heard from residents and planned to conduct another community meeting. Residents cited exorbitant housing prices and limited options for housing in Pittsfield but there were also several other testimonies that stood out to trustees.
The Elizabeth Freeman Center's Director of Programs Jennifer Goewey's plea for the panel to consider the economic impact of violence hit home for Michael McCarthy.
Goewey explained that many women suffering domestic violence are stuck in abusive situations because they have nowhere else to go.
McCarthy wondered if a meeting could be facilitated between the Pittsfield Housing Authority, of which he is a member, the trust and the Elizabeth Freeman Center.
"I don't know if the Housing Authority has that ability to do that but it sure hit home where I think we need some emergency housing that is secure," he said.
"And I kind of would love to go meet the director of the Freeman Center at the Freeman Center and find out what their needs are then try to figure out if there's anything PHA can do, anything the Affordable Housing Trust can do."
Chair Betsy Sherman, who is the executive director of the Christian Center, said it is not just the Freeman Center that is suffering from a lack of housing. She said there is a waitlist for the city's shelter and families are being placed outside of Boston.
Sherman has found that in her experience, housing agencies are siloed and it is hard to cross-reference applications to find assistance.
"In my brain, it seems very complicated in Pittsfield, and I have told clients that if they reach out to more than one housing agency, they're better off because one agency may have housing for a couple that the agency they're applying to doesn't," she explained.
"So yes, the Freeman Center has a special requirement in that they have to be secure, they have to be safe, the property actually has to be a secure property but they are not the only ones that are in dire straits by any stretch of the imagination and from my position, I don't know how to make this happen."
McCarthy said PHA is working diligently and closely with Berkshire Housing Corp. to save tenants from eviction.
"The lines of communication are very open and very healthy at this point. I recognize that historically there have been silos, as Betsy indicates," he said.
"Regarding people who are homeless, there is a process that the housing authority has to go through. It's very unfortunate we can't react in emergency situations but I'm trying to take just one little step for women who are being abused where we can somehow work out something with the Freemen Center to get permission from the state to use any of our units for a temporary emergency type of housing setup."
Pittsfield Director of Community Development Justine Dodds said it is a full-time job housing the insecure with the amount of work that needs to be done through different agencies to find housing.
"Unfortunately, there are separate funding sources for public housing, so some of them are federal, some of them are state and you do have to put your name on both lists if you want to get the quickest results," she said.
"The regional housing authority and Berkshire Housing are co-located so they will tell you that regional housing, if you put in, it's supposed to be one front door that you put in your application, and if you need housing they'll send you to the housing person who manages their state housing, and if you need [Rental Assistance for Families], they should be able to put you in touch with the person who does RAFT. I'm not minimizing at all what you're saying Betsy because we hear it all the time and sometimes when your housing is unstable, that's not the message you want to hear."
She added that the PHA now has a priority preference for people who are homeless but they still have to come through a referral agency.
Taliaferro would like the panel to consider acting as a developer to get the projects underway. He spurred a theoretical discussion about collaborating with a possible development on the former Polish Community Club site at the corner of Linden and Center Street.
"I really want this board to become the middle market developer that also does mixed-use property and that from the revenue generated from owning, leasing, or even selling those units, we invest in future projects," he said.
Dodds reported that the buyers of the property, located at 47 to 55 Linden St., have contacted the city and believed that they wanted to put townhouses on the land. She thought that they were looking in the ballpark of 20 units.
"They do own property in Pittsfield as well. They also own some other property on North Street. They do have a local component so we could reach out to them if that is something we wanted to do," she said.
"But I do know that the partner that's in Florida is a housing developer or has done housing development in the past and had done some of these similar types of housing."
She will be reaching out to the owners to have a conversation about what their needs are and to see where they are at with planning.
"Housing is a basic human right," Taliaferro said.
Dodds also gave the panel an overview of its funding and the parameters for use. This includes $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $125,000 in Community Preservation Act funds.
ARPA funds can be used for projects qualified for other federal programs and that meet core affordable housing requirements. The CPA funds can be used to acquire, create, preserve, and support community housing and can be used to rehabilitate it with some caveats.
Tags: affordable housing,
