Letter: MCLA Homeless Shelter Should Have Had Public Input

To the Editor:

I question MCLA's President Birge's commitment to education and to our North Berkshire community.

"… the historic public purpose of American higher education is to respond to the needs and demands of society." President Jamie Birge, WAMC 5/10/2023

The problem of the poor and unhoused is a symptom of a decline in democratic values and income inequality. A simple change in the earned income tax credit was able to cut child poverty by about 46 percent in just a few months.

Massachusetts needs more than 200,000 new homes in order to start addressing the housing crisis. What is stopping Massachusetts from building these homes? Powerful interests who do not have a modicum of decency prevent democratic actions to address our problems. Democracy means participation and engagement. It requires leaders to inspire open and respectful dialogue to address the needs of the people.

In 2014, North Adams Regional Hospital was closed with three days notice with no public hearing. Shortly after the hospital closing, the state closed our North Adams welfare office and our North Adams employment office with no public hearing.

Richard Dassatti
North Adams, Mass. 

Bracewell Youth Project

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
01:21PM / Monday, April 06, 2026

Above, a watercolor landscape on the second floor.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Residents entering transitional housing at 111 Bracewell Ave. can look to the left to see a light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

The dark painting with its pathway toward lighted element brought to mind the Hoosac Tunnel, said Kathy Keeser, executive director of Louison House, on Friday.

 

"Somebody who was going through something could think, well, this is a way out — or a way in," she said, of why she selected that piece.

 

Plus, she added, the colors really worked in the front hallway of the Bracewell Youth Housing Project. 

 

The work was one of three donated by artist Sarah Sutro, whose paintings also hang in the Flood House and in Terry's House in Adams. A regional and international artist who makes her home in North Adams, her artworks have been in collections and exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including at the State House. 

 

Sutro's recently been going through her works of acrylics, inks and watercolors she's created over her career.  

 

"I just have enjoyed giving some of my paintings that are in storage in my studio, not doing anything with them, and having them out in the community instead, and having other people enjoy them and relate to them," she said.