The space inside the Zion Lutheran Church at 74 First Street, just steps from the heart of downtown Pittsfield, is called The First.
“The physical space is kind of broken up into different areas. So, certainly, washers and dryers, there are bathrooms and showers, there will be a technology room, there'll be a quiet room with kind of comfortable furniture if somebody just needs some quiet time. Sometimes, if you've been out all night long, you need to rest a little bit," said Eileen Peltier, the CEO and president of Hearthway, formerly known as Berkshire Housing Development Corporation. “And then there'll be a larger sort of community area where people can gather and interact with each other and interact with, you know, all members of the community who come in. And lastly, I forgot to mention, very exciting, there is a commercial kitchen that people will be able to utilize.”
The private nonprofit works to find housing solutions for Berkshire County, where low wages, steep housing prices, a limited market, and a spike in evictions contribute to an ongoing increase in housing insecurity.
The $3 million housing resource center at Zion Lutheran is complemented by the 37 units of the First Street Apartments upstairs – another part of the larger effort to grow Pittsfield’s housing that stems from former Mayor Linda Tyer’s decision to make a historic investment in the sector using American Rescue Plan Act federal pandemic relief funding in 2021.
Peltier says it’s taken a community-wide push to see the doors on The First finally open.
“The biggest challenge with permanent supportive housing is figuring out how to get the rent paid and how to support the services, so, it's really a special offering to bring to the people in the city," she told WAMC. "And The First is something I'm incredibly proud of- All of the members of the team, whether it's ServiceNet, the Zion Lutheran Church, the City of Pittsfield, the Cathedral of the Beloved, all of us coming together to develop something that is innovative and community based, and is going to be a real asset to the community.”
Peltier stresses that The First space is for the full community, not just unhoused people.
“That creates an opportunity for us to be in relationship with each other, to understand each other, to quiet some of the assumptions we make, the rhetoric that can be out there across the country right now about people experiencing homelessness," she said. "And I think that's really an incredible offering right now, particularly at this moment.”
Those misconceptions and stereotypes about the unhoused can have an outsized impact on public policy. The First’s opening comes after months of yet unresolved debate about a camping ban in Pittsfield, which remains tied up in internal review after intense back and forth about how to best support both unhoused people and downtown business owners concerned about their presence.
“I think the idea that this is a choice, that people are choosing to live this way - I'd like that that rumor to kind of be dispelled," said Erin Forbush. "The rumor of, people just need to get a job and kind of, pull up their bootstraps kind of thought process that that this issue is far more complex than just getting a job, and that there's a lot more at play there- Poverty brings a very different systemic issue that I would like people to kind of be able to see from a person-centered space.”
Forbush is senior director of Shelter and Housing at ServiceNet, the nonprofit mental health and human service agency that provides services for Pittsfield. ServiceNet runs the city’s shelter system, and will provide resources at The First as well.
“The space will develop as people using it want it to develop," she said. "So, it could be that a lot of people come in looking for resources, so then we maybe bring in different agencies to come in and maybe have kind of like an office hours that they could answer questions and help folks. Maybe it's that people are really looking more for connection, and they want to do like, I've been using the example of a knitting circle, a book club, or they just want to come in and get inside from the elements.”
The First will also serve as a hub for contributions from the wider community to its unhoused members.
“This space will give us some space to have donations, and to also have people come in and be able to manage those," said Forbush. "So maybe we create, if people are looking for that, a little boutique, and then somebody's kind of organizing it, working it, volunteering at it, setting it up.”
Peltier says The First’s opening represents a glimmer of hope after a challenging year.
“I work in Pittsfield," she said. "I see the challenges. I engage with homeless people. I also walk by them when I'm rushing off to a meeting. It's hard. It's hard to know what to do. We're all human, we all feel compassion when someone's struggling. But I feel like this is really an opportunity that says we can do something.”
