Augustus attended the ceremonial groundbreaking of a $16 million three-pronged initiative that will bring 37 permanent supportive housing units and a housing resource center to Pittsfield. Homelessness rates have spiked in the commonwealth in recent years, which the secretary attributes to the lack of affordable housing.
“We've seen interest rates go up, we've seen inflation increase the cost of building materials," the secretary told WAMC. "So, just the physical cost of building units or rehabbing units is more expensive today than it was five or 10 years ago. And so, that has slowed the building, in a lot of cases, of new units. And so, it's a law of supply and demand- Anything that's in strong demand but low supply, the cost tends to go up, and the people who end up getting the most impacted are the people on those fixed incomes or working a minimum wage job who don't have the ability to absorb a 10% or 15% increase in the rent. They can't increase their income, and so they become the first folks who become homeless or housing insecure. Maybe they couch surf for a while, stay with family and friends until those options run out and they ultimately end up unhoused.”
The event was held at Zion Lutheran Church on First Street, which will be developed into both housing units on its second floor as well as the new Pittsfield Housing Resource Center.
Hearthway Inc., formerly known as the Berkshire Housing Development Corporation, is the entity behind the effort.
“Today, Pittsfield is taking a big step toward our responsibility to make our community stronger for all of us. The development of 37 apartments – 28 at a site just across the way on West Housatonic Street, and nine here at Zion Lutheran Church – will provide apartments for individuals who are experiencing homelessness," said CEO Eileen Peltier. “In addition to a lovely studio apartment, residents will have access to a bounty of services provided by a collaboration of community partners, including Hearthway, the Brien Center, ServiceNet and more. We know that providing four walls and a roof is often not enough to ensure individuals are safely and continuously housed. Permanent supportive housing like these homes is the best way to ensure individuals thrive.”
Support for the new permanent housing units came from sources including the commonwealth, Massachusetts Alliance for Supportive Housing, Mass Housing Shelter Alliance, and the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp.
Under then-Mayor Linda Tyer, Pittsfield allocated $8.6 million of the more than $40 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding it received to housing initiatives in 2022, including around $6.5 million for the new resource center. Augustus told WAMC that set Pittsfield apart from other communities in Massachusetts.
“Many times, we see communities kind of just wanting to make the homeless problem go away instead of really dealing with the core issues, and so, I'm very impressed with the fact that the city of Pittsfield is putting their money where their mouth is and really trying to tackle some of the underlying issues around homelessness and not just move people along and think that's just going to make it go away, kind of providing some actual help and resources that we know will make a difference,” he said.
Mayor Peter Marchetti explained what the new center will offer.
“In addition to the 37 units of housing, here at Zion will also be a home to the new housing resource center that will provide the amenities such as mailboxes, a quiet lounge area, tech area for computers, phone charging station, a commercial kitchen, community room, laundry, lockers, bathrooms with showers, and and office and consulting space- All stuff that many of us take for granted,” he said.
The second stop of the secretary’s trip was to visit the Williamstown Housing Authority in the northern reaches of Berkshire County. Augustus told WAMC it was part of a commonwealth-wide public housing tour.
“We have 43,000 units across the state, about 70,000 people living in those 43,000 units," he explained. "They're spread out in 232 communities in the state, and often they could be the only extremely low-income option housing in a given community in many cases.”
Much of the commonwealth’s public housing system was built after World War II, and Augustus says it’s crucial to invest in the 70- to 80-year-old units to make sure they can sustain the ever-increasing pressure.
“Many of the units are for elderly and disabled folks," said the secretary. "They're not fully accessible, so we need to be putting a lot more resources into those units to make them meet the needs of the population that are using those, but also to keep up with the wear and tear that any 75- or 80-year-old unit is going to have, and make sure that we're investing in that. The Affordable Homes Act does that. It lays out $2 billion over the next five years that we will invest in that public housing to make sure that we can keep that essential safety net system in place.”
Governor Maura Healey’s over $5 billion Affordable Homes Act was signed into law this summer. Its almost 50 discrete initiatives over the next five years will focus on increasing the commonwealth’s housing stock by encouraging construction, modernizing the public housing system, supporting first-time homebuyers, and more.
