YWCA to add $5.5 million housing unit to campus

Date: 7/28/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- Mary Reardon Johnson, executive director of the YWCA of Western Massachusetts, said the new $5.5 million housing unit that will be built on the YWCA Clough Street campus is the second of three phases of development for the 11-acre site.

YWCA officials joined with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, State Rep. Angelo Puppolo and State Sen. Stephen Buoniconti for the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday morning.

"This day represents years of work," Lee Bennett, president of the YWCA, said.

The new facility will be a housing center with 20 apartments and eight congregate housing units that is expected to be completed in one year. The facility will be built by women-owned businesses and feature "green" construction.

Phase one, Johnson explained, was the YWCA offices and domestic violence shelter that was built five years ago. The third phase would be a work readiness and vocational training center.

Johnson explained to Reminder Publications the supportive housing would be used by three groups of women: those coming out of the YWCA's domestic violence shelter; young mothers ages 20 and over who no longer can be served by the YWCA's teen mother program; and women coming out of prison wanting to be reunited with their families.

The housing units would all be designated for low-income tenants and Johnson said that occupancy could be "long term."

While in the housing program, the participants are expected to obtain an education certificate such as a GED and a job. Additional YWCA services will teach the occupants parenting and budgeting skills.

Johnson said that once the 28 units are available, a waiting list would be developed.

The YWCA has seen a 30 percent increase in need for its domestic violence services in the last six months, she said. Approximately 8,000 calls to the YWCA's hotline been received so far this year and five out of six women are turned away from the shelter due to demand.

Johnson said that although when the shelter opened it did not accept women from Springfield on the assumption the non-secret site might not offer them enough protection from their abusers now, 82 percent of the women are from Springfield.

The average stay in the shelter used to be around three weeks, but now it has risen to about four months, she added. The housing unit is expected to help free up shelter beds, while preparing women for life on their own.

Johnson noted the skepticism over five years ago expressed by some over the construction of its office and shelter building.

"They didn't believe girls could do it. They didn't understand what were talking about," she said.