The house at 40 Grove St. was sold to Habitat by the town and its Affordable Housing Trust to create an affordable housing opportunity for a local family.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity is working on a newly purchased property located at 40 Grove St.
This late 1800s home is being renovated as the first step to Habitat providing affordable homeownership in South County. The town of Great Barrington and its Affordable Housing Trust chose to sell this three-bedroom home to Habitat as part of their ongoing efforts to keep the area affordable for those hard-working families that work in the area.
After renovations, this home will be made available for sale using a lottery system later this year according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development standards.
The lottery system gives all eligible applicants an equal chance of purchasing the home. Habitat will have trained volunteers to help people interested in purchasing this home available throughout the process.
With rental costs rising, opportunities like this one can give people a chance to own a home and build wealth for their families while having an affordable payment.
Habitat can only offer homes at an affordable price with the help of volunteers and contractors, so the call for those interested in helping out has begun.
Habitat's goal is to bring people together to build homes, communities and hope, and to do that it needs to develop a core group of "Habitat Champions" who will be able to shape the work the organization does in South County. Habitat welcomes anyone wishing to join its team, whether the are skilled or just want to learn and be a part of building something bigger than themselves.
In March, Habitat held an open house for volunteers at the Grove Street house as a first step to getting to know the neighbors and give those interested an idea Habitat is and does. In the past few weeks, volunteers have helped to shore up the building for safety, clean out the house's contents, and remove drywall. In the coming month, the foundation will need to be stabilized so that volunteer crews can begin the renovation work needed.
This project is just the first of many projects planned in Great Barrington and Housatonic. In addition to this home renovation, Habitat is working with the Affordable Housing Trust to build up to 20 affordable homes on a piece of land on North Plain Road in Housatonic.
"We believe that everyone should have a decent place to call home. Together, we achieve that vision, when we all come together sharing our traditions and customs to build a better community," said Habitat officials.
Check out the volunteer page at BerkshireHabitat.org or call 413-442-3181 to get involved.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
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CHP Marks Completion of Lee Family Practice Renovation
By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
The practice sacrificed office space to accommodate new patient rooms when costs for the renovation project grew.
LEE,Mass. — Community Health Programs Inc. celebrated the completion of its long awaited expansion of Lee Family Practice.
The nearly $1.1 million project was funded by CHP and by a federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant.
The health center program was approved for the grant seven years ago but the project was delayed because of the costs, scope negotiations and the pandemic. When the project was first established, it cost more than the grant amount so the scope had to be adjusted, Chief Financial Officer Tom Walbridge said.
Although the size of the project had to be reduced, it was still able to meet the determined needs, including the number of exam rooms and consult spaces, and the number of potential new patients, within the smaller footprint, he said.
The expansion will allow the practice to serve its patients more efficiently and to increase the number of primary-care patients the health center sees by 1,500 over the next two to three years.
The number of exam rooms were expanded from nine to 13 and the number of consult rooms from one to four.
Within the next couple of months, the practice will increase the number of doctors to four and the number of nurse practitioners to six. It also added a space for a community health worker office.
That was the message to state Sen. Paul Mark and his colleague Lydia Edwards of East Boston, Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, who is on a listening tour of the state to better understand the issue.
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