In July, Pittsfield, Massachusetts Mayor Linda Tyer announced that $8.6 million the city received in federal pandemic relief would go to a slate of housing initiatives. The lion’s share of the money will help create new city-owned permanent supportive housing and a housing resource center with access to a kitchen, laundry facilities, bathrooms, and more. Funding will also flow to a new downtown emergency shelter, the creation of an affordable housing trust, and more. The move comes as Pittsfield and Berkshire County struggle with a housing crisis and questions about supporting the unhoused. In addition to being a major piece of the roughly $40 million the city received from the American Rescue Plan Act, Tyer tells WAMC it’s the largest single investment in housing Pittsfield has ever made.
TYER: Well, it really started when we were holding our community forums and conducting our community surveys and meeting with the mayor's advisory council and also in conversations with the city's homeless advisory council. Housing clearly rose to the top of everyone's list for ARPA investments. And we also knew that the type of housing that we needed most in our community range from emergency sheltering to permanent supportive housing and those stops in between, those places in between where people can access safe, dignified, secure housing. And so we also knew that we needed to make investments in affordable housing, which is, you know, one level above what is needed for permanent supportive housing. So those were the three, four areas where we felt we wanted to make some significant investments with the American Rescue Plan. And we always need partners. In order for us to be successful with these investments, we needed community partners, and people with experience in this type of housing. And that's what led us to partnerships with Berkshire Housing, with ServiceNet, with the two faith communities here, First United Methodist Church, which we had already been working with, and now Zion Lutheran. Also new construction through Berkshire Housing, but also with a private developer who has vast experience in affordable housing. So those were, you know, that was sort of the roadmap we took when we were looking at how to best maximize our ARPA investments for these types of housing initiatives.
WAMC: Now, the lion's share of the ARPA funding sent to the housing sector, is going towards bolstering these housing spaces at the Zion Lutheran Church in two locations in Pittsfield, on First Street and on West Housatonic Street. Can you break down for me exactly how many folks this is intended to serve and what the timeline is from the funds being directed towards the project to actually getting folks in housing?
So, what we are anticipating between the two locations is that at the Zion Church, there will be eight units, eight residential units of permanent supportive housing. And then over on West Housatonic Street, there will be 28 units of new construction. So those are the types of apartments that we anticipate building for really what would be identified as permanent supportive housing, but also at Zion is an initiative to construct and establish a Housing Resource Center, so not living units, but a resource center for people to have access to things like a mailbox and a technology area, commercial kitchen, a lounge area, laundry, locker rooms, bathrooms with showers. Those are the sort of things that we've learned over time are most needed for the community of neighbors who have instability and insecurity in their housing. So those are really the two elements of that big investment, units of permanent supportive housing, and also a Housing Resource Center.
Just to reiterate- how many folks do you think this is ultimately going to impact? And at what point will the doors open on all this?
Well, we're in the very early stages of putting together the other funding sources, right? So this is not just American Rescue Plan money, there's going to need to be some state money and other nonprofit funds being put. So we're building now the funding package to move this forward. Our hope is that this, between emergency sheltering, where people need an emergency place to stay, will be able to transition into permanent supportive housing, find stability and access to resources, and then ultimately move into an affordable apartment at White Terrace. So we are looking at the journey of housing, and how to help people move through that journey in a way that gives as many people as possible access to these housing units and also the resources.
Now, looking forward, it's obvious that the ARPA funding- It's a windfall. It's not happening again. What are ways that the city can sort of set up guardrails that this kind of investment will be sustainable moving forward and they will there will be continued investment in housing from Pittsfield in the years to come?
Well, as you know, one of the other elements that we- There are two other pieces to our housing initiative. One of one of them is the creation of an affordable housing trust, and also an investment in At Home In Pittsfield. So we know that the financial support in future years will not come from the American rescue plan, and that we will have to rely on our traditional partnerships with some local funding and some partnerships with our state agencies and our nonprofit organizations. So what we're doing here is investing in the bricks and mortar to make the actual facilities, to construct the facilities. And also, we know that there will be funds needed to provide services to the residents of these places, you know, these apartments. So it's always going to be a combination of funding coming from a variety of sources.
A lot of reporting around housing in Pittsfield, especially during the era of the emergency shelter at St. Joe's, revealed that a lot of folks in that shelter, for example, felt like they faced situations where they were imperiled or felt frustration with how they were treated by staff. There were complaints from folks using that facility. Was any of that woven into these conversations about what housing can look like in Pittsfield moving forward?
Well, we certainly take seriously any concerns that are raised by the people of our community that have housing insecurity, and we have strengthened our relationships with ServiceNet and with Berkshire Housing and with the other agencies that provide care and comfort to the people of our community that struggle with housing stability. So while we, you know, want everyone to feel safe, secure, and that the services that are available to them are meeting their needs, we know that this is complex and challenging and there are going to be times when we might have to find creative ways to help people find opportunities for stability in their life. And we're going to, you know, confront those challenges together as a strong network.
Do you have a sense that there has ever been a single investment in housing as large as this in Pittsfield history?
Certainly not as large as this and certainly not with the sort of the variety of initiatives that we want to fund with the American Rescue Plan. You know, we have seen some affordable housing projects take place, like at Rice Silk Mill and the New Amsterdam project, those all took place when I was a member of the city council or serving a city clerk, but this is certainly the largest investment. And I just have to say that it is so refreshing to have Berkshire Housing, who's very experienced in these kinds of housing projects, to be part of our team in making all of this a reality for us.
