THE GORDON H. MANSFIELD VETERANS COMMUNITY, PITTSFIELD
Safe Affordable Housing
The Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, Pittsfield, is the place where Soldier On will take our next step toward changing the end of the story and ending veteran homelessness.
We are moving forward, but we need your help to make this important initiative a reality. While public funding will go a long way to finance the project, funding from the private sector — both companies, organizations and individuals — will play a crucial role in its success. Make a donation today to help us move forward with this and future Veterans Community projects.
THE PROJECT: BRICK AND MORTAR
Soldier On is breaking new ground in serving homeless veterans — both figuratively and literally with the October 2009 start of construction on our first limited-equity housing project, The Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, Pittsfield. This first-of-its-kind project will serve as a national model for organizations like ours seeing to move beyond providing a response to veteran homelessness to proving a permanent solution. We intend to rewrite the book on reintegrating formerly homeless veterans into local communities.
This project is not only novel in its approach to providing veterans with a place they can truly call their own, but also through its use of individual deposit accounts for each participant in the housing cooperative. Because the housing is funded through grants and donations to Soldier On, the money usually paid as debt service on a housing loan is instead deposited into an account for the owners. After five years, or if they decide to sell their share in the development, veterans can receive these funds for discretionary use, providing further incentive to keep their lives on track.
While Soldier On continues to need support for this project and a similar initiative being planned for our Leeds site, we are happy to report that some significant resources have been secured to advance the Pittsfield housing plan:
Congressman John Olver has included in the HUD/Transportation Subcommittee budget a direct federal appropriation of $900,000; as this is written, that budget is on the President's desk. In the past Congressman Olver secured a direct federal appropriation of $800,000, which, after a Department of Defense rescission of 1%, resides at HUD awaiting drawdown. If the President does not veto the FY08 budget bill, or if his veto is overturned, the federal commitment to this project will stand at $1.692 million. In addition to Congressman Olver, Congressman Richard Neal and Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry have worked to secure these funds.
The HUD budget also contains language that would fund HUD-VASH after years of zero funding. HUD-VASH is a subset of the Section 8 rental assistance program that offers supportive housing subsidies to eligible veterans. We believe that these new HUD-VASH units will be available as both tenant-based and project-based subsidies — another potential source of equity financing for this project.
We continue to work with Berkshire Housing Development Corp. as our development consultant. In February, 2008, BHDC prepared a OneStop Application for funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. The previous DHCD commitment of $750,000 from the Housing Innovations Fund remains in the mix. Eventually, the state's commitment will approach $3 million.
In 2007, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative awarded the project $40,000 toward a feasibility study of a proposed biodiesel co-generation plant for this project. The feasibility study is nearing completion.
In addition to a 2007 gift of $15,000, TD Banknorth awarded the project their top 2008 gift of $30,000, bringing TD Banknorth's commitment thus far to $45,000. TD Banknorth is the project's most generous private supporter. TD Banknorth's contribution will help write down pre-development soft costs (i.e. the balance of the feasibility study mentioned above).
We submitted an April 2008 application to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston's Affordable Housing Program. We will be seeking a $400,000 direct subsidy and a $400,000 loan from this program.
We hope to fill the finance gap with private contributions. Soldier On's board of directors and CEO Jack Downing have been busy putting together a strategy for fund development from the private sector and from individuals. We are also preparing foundation proposals. Soldier On will be placing ads in national periodicals, and we will continue to work the halls of Congress.
Join us in making this project a success with your donation.
