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Date: 4/6/2021
NORTHAMPTON – On April 1, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz announced that the city had received a $250,000 grant to establish affordable housing at the former Northampton State Hospital site.
In the release, Narkewicz said the money will go toward two affordable housing developments – one on Laurel Street and the other on Burts Pit Road.
“This investment from the commonwealth will allow us to demolish a decrepit building on Burts Pit Road so that we can donate that lot to Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity for three affordable homeownership units,” he said. “It will also allow us to improve infrastructure on Laurel Street so that we can donate that lot to Valley Community Development for approximately 24 affordable rental units.”
While increasing affordable housing, Narkewicz also said the developments will fall in line with the city’s climate change goals.
“We need to increase our affordable housing stock to serve our residents and reduce the number of people that are excessively housing burdened or at risk of losing their homes. At the same time, we are meeting some of our climate change commitments by requiring that these units use grid-supplied electricity for thermal loads,” he said.
Along with receiving the funding, 1st Hampshire District state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa said it was necessary to secure the transfer of land from the state first.
“We had to pass legislation for this land to be transferred from the state’s Department of Capital Assets and Management to the city of Northampton, which took quite a few months last session, so we are happy to see that successful transfer,” she said.
Sabadosa said building affordable housing in those lots was a long-standing goal for the city.
“The city really went after one of these grants so that they could build affordable housing, which has long been the intent to use those lots to redevelop them so that we can get more units into the city,” she said.
With a clear vision in mind, Sabadosa said it was easier to secure funding for the project.
“The city had a very clear vision for the land for quite a while which really helps when trying to secure government funding. It helped lay the groundwork and the city did the bulk of that work applying for the grant and making sure they were ready to go the second the announcement was made,” she said.
Sabadosa said the grant shows that the state realizes that there is an affordable housing problem in Western Massachusetts as well as Eastern Massachusetts.
“We have a shortage of about 19,000 units in Western Massachusetts, so this is making a small but very important dent in that. Getting this grant and moving this process forward is a way of the state recognizing that affordable housing is not just an Eastern Massachusetts problem,” she said.
While the project is just beginning its design phase, Sabadosa said she is looking forward to cutting the ribbon for the housing once it is finished.
“We are still a way off from putting the units into fruition, but I expect that in the next few years we will be there, and we will be cutting a ribbon to have people move into their new homes,” she said.
Reminder Publishing reached out to Narkewicz for additional comment but did not receive a response as of press time.