Pittsfield, Massachusetts-based Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity has two affordable homes up for grabs in a Fair Housing Lottery open to qualified applicants this fall. The dwellings are two three-bedroom units at 82 and 84 Robbins Avenue in Pittsfield, a duplex, and a single-family ranch-style house with three bedrooms at 16 Gulf Road in neighboring Dalton. CEO Carolyn Valli tells WAMC that the applicants selected for the homes could move in as soon as the holidays.
VALLI: The first one is 16 Gulf Road in Dalton, Mass. It was through a request for proposal process with the town of Dalton, and they donated the land to us for $1. So, we were able to work with Allegrone Construction and a bunch of other development people, construction people, to be able to afford to offer this at a sales price of $225,000. And it's a 1,500 square foot home, three bedrooms, all appliances, washer, dryer, and it also has a shed, and it was the first Tier 2, all-electric house approved, which means a super high efficiency home, in the Berkshires.
WAMC: Now, tell us about the second home.
The second home is located at 82-84 Robbins, and that was a combination of purchasing the land from the city and getting some MassHousing funds to be able to lower the purchase price for people that live in the neighborhood. So that one is offered at $140,000, that is a three bedroom, one and a half baths, with a first-floor bedroom and bathroom for aging in place. And those are condo units.
Who is eligible to apply for these housing opportunities?
Anybody that is making- For the Pittsfield properties, anybody that's making up to 65% area median income, and for Dalton, it's anybody earning up to 80% area median income. And for a family of four, the 80% area median income for all household members is $90,000, and the $65,000- Those are both maximums, not minimum.
The lottery is open to applicants. Tell us about the process- What does it look like, and how long do folks have to put their names into the hat?
I just want to clear up one misconception- Even though it's called a lottery, you actually have to be income eligible to purchase the home. It's really an equal home ownership selection process, so that everybody that is eligible to purchase the home has an opportunity to do so. Sometimes the word lottery makes people think that it's like a scratch ticket, and it's nothing like that at all. But people can apply for the Pittsfield properties up until October 31st. For the Dalton properties, it's up until October 15th. They have to have a full application package with all of the required documentation submitted prior to then, and then, two weeks later, we actually start the homeownership selection process. So, everyone who is eligible to be in that opportunity will receive a number, which is a code number, and then we will draw each one of those code numbers out of the container until all people have been ranked, and then we go through the process of figuring out best utilization of bedrooms and so forth. The good news on these opportunities is we have many houses coming up, so if people aren't in the first or second spot in order to purchase these two homes, we have two more that are going to be closing in about another 60 days, and then we have houses that are on the drawing board that will start in the spring for the next build season. There's five of those. And the great part about it is people that are in this opportunity, and that maybe don't fit the right size for these houses- So, if you have a larger family, like a family of six, you might need a four bedroom rather than a three bedroom. We would already know what size home you needed, and we could, we're still in design phase, so we could make that happen.
