BOSTON – Monday’s annual meeting of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment officials bore good news for the city of Westfield’s Housing Authority.
Massachusetts Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Aaron Gornstein announced $5 million in funding aimed at renovating and repairing public housing units statewide.
“Affordable public housing is in high demand across the state,” said Gornstein. “These additional dedicated funds will provide local housing authorities with new tools and funding to extend the life of our current housing stock and also provide key services and resources for residents.”
Of that $5 million, Westfield will receive $51,000.
The Western Mass Consortium, which includes Springfield’s HAP Housing, and the Agawam, Chicopee, Holyoke and Northampton housing authorities, will also receive $362,200.
Western Mass Consortium’s piece of the pie will be issued through the Massachusetts Learning, Employment and Asset Program (MassLEAP), a five-year program which provides participants with services that “support meaningful and sustained earned income growth through career and employment planning and post-secondary education advances.”
In Westfield, the Housing Authority is ready to utilize the funds, allocated to the DHCD by the Family and Elderly Public Housing Re-occupancy Initiative, to revive one city-owned parcel in particular.
“We’re using that $51,000 to repair 8 High Street, which has been offline for approximately five years,” said Dan Kelly of the Westfield Housing Authority. “We have one side rented, but we don’t have the other side rented.”
According to Kelly, the unit’s unoccupied side has some serious work ahead of it.
“There’s massive repairs that have to be done to get it back on line and up to code so we can start renting the place out,” he said, adding that the city will be contracting the services of local vendors to conduct the much-needed renovations and repairs. “There’s massive repairs we’ve got to do. We’ve got to kind of jack the house back up.”
In an email, Kelly listed repairs to living floor floor joists and wood flooring, and repairs/replacement of the ceiling and flooring of bathroom and kitchen as just some of the necessary improvements and renovations that the $51,000 will go toward.
Other expenses will include the replacement of fixtures, remodeling of the second floor bathroom, upgrades to the home’s heating system, replacement of exterior and interior lighting, and various exterior projects.
