Chapin School to be converted into housing for veterans
Date: 10/24/2012
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHICOPEE — The long closed Chapin Elementary School will have a new use as an apartment complex for homeless veterans.
Mayor Michael Bissonnette was joined by City Council President George Moreau, Jack Downing, the CEO of Soldier On and Dennis Fitzpatrick, the president of The O'Connell Companies at the school on Oct. 18 for the announcement.
Closed for more than a decade, the school had been considered by a developer for a condominium project prior to the advent of the recession in November 2008.
Bissonnette said the renovation of the school was a $10 million project. The O'Connell Companies will buy and develop the property in partnership with Solider On, the Northampton-based program designed to assisting homeless veterans to rebuild their lives.
The redeveloped property will not be non-profit, Bissonnette said, but will be on the tax rolls and is expected to generate $30,000 for the city.
The purpose of the housing unit is to "end homelessness for vets," Downing said. "These kind of projects will end 85 percent of homelessness."
Downing explained the housing complex would be the home of about 40 male veterans. Each participant will have to buy a share of the building for $2,500 and then would pay a rent of $600 a month.
"It's almost like a condo, except the purpose is not to increase in value," Downing said. He added the once a vet passes, another vet can pay the share and move in.
If there is any surplus income generated, it will be rolled back into improvements for the building, he said.
Downing envisions determining how many parking spaces would be needed for the complex and then converting part of the blacktop schoolyard into a greenhouse.
Downing's organization has a housing complex in Pittsfield with a similar set-up. He recalled that when he described it to a group of homeless vets they serve there, some of them cried. He said that some of the vets said they looked forward to paying rent and taxes.
Downing said, "He [a veteran] said, 'We have been taking for so long, we want to give something back.'"
The complex will offer more than just housing, Downing explained. The social services needed by some of the vets will be brought to them.
Fitzgerald said that his company would do its "due diligence" within the next 18 to 24 months to seek funding and advance the planning of the project.
Moreau said the project is "very gratifying."
He added, "As a vet, I can really appreciate it."
Downing provided a snapshot of whom the organization serves. He said of the 300 vets, who were in the organization's care last week, the average age was 49. About 60 percent were either Vietnam War or post-Vietnam war vets with the remainder coming from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
He added that 84 percent of the vets have an addiction problem, 82 percent have mental health issue and 61 percent suffer from hypertension.
With younger vets coming into the program, Downing said adjustments to the staff have been necessary.
Female vets are also in the Soldier On program and Downing said they would not be living in the Chicopee facility but rather in all-female housing. He said that 100 percent of the female vets suffer from sexual trauma from their military careers and 70 percent had experienced sexual trauma before they entered into the military.
Bissonnette said, "We just can't think about vets when there is a parade. It has to be every day of the year.
For more information, go to
www.wesoldieron.org.
