By Kevin O'Connor, CEO, Rural Ulster Preservation Company
Last week, RUPCO celebrated the long anticipated opening
of Woodstock Commons. We marked the occasion with a ribbon cutting ceremony and
invited the public to an open campus on Friday, May 3.
Remarkably, it was exactly 10 years ago, in May of 2003,
when the phone rang. It was Bob Young, then chair of the Town of Woodstock's
Affordable Housing Committee calling to ask if RUPCO would please come to
Woodstock to build some affordable housing. After all, Bob said "We've had
an affordable housing committee in this town for the better part of three
decades and we can't get any affordable housing built."
Believing that home matters, we said yes. And we were
pleased to have the early support of NeighborWorks America, which provided
important pre-development financing to really get the project moving.
Today, Woodstock Commons shines as an intergenerational
campus of 53 homes for seniors, working families, and artists clustered on
seven acres of a 28-acre site nestled behind the Bradley Meadows Shopping
Center. The 1-, 2- and 3- bedroom homes are energy efficient employing a
ground-based, geo thermal system to provide central air heating and cooling.
The homes are connected to the municipal water and sewer systems and feature
walking trails that link, for the first time, the established neighborhoods
of Playhouse and Elwyn Quarry Lanes. The buildings' handsome and unique design
features vaulted ceilings, metal roofs, fiber cement siding, bamboo flooring
and ample windows. Senior residents enjoy three separate community rooms while
a large community building centers the campus as a gathering place for all
residents. Each apartment is visitable by offering a grade level entrance and
first floor, wheelchair accessible bathroom. The site is expected to earn two
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications from the US
Green Building Council: one for New Construction and the other for
Neighborhood Development.
So why does it matter?
For each of us, home is at the center of our everyday
life; it's where each day starts and ends. Home is where we play, where we
rest and are nourished. It's where we teach our children and gather with
friends and family. It's where we are inspired and where our dreams take root.
We know from experience and research that stable homes lead to healthier
lifestyles, more individual success, higher student achievement and safer
communities.
To be sure, the homes at Woodstock Commons matter greatly
for the first group of residents lucky enough to be chosen in the lottery. They
are now living in affordable, healthy, energy efficient homes near the hamlet,
enabling them to achieve greater well-being. With truly affordable rent & utilities, residents will have more disposable income for the other
necessities of life. Children have others to play with and they can be
proud of where they live. Seniors can visit easily with their friends and a
walk in the woods lies just outside everyone's front door!
Ask Mercedes, a wonderful artist and longtime Woodstock
resident, whose last apartment was mold infested and causing her to be ill, how
much her new healthy home at Woodstock Commons matters. Ask Mandara, a senior
artist originally from Mexico who works at the Woodstock School of Art if her
new home matters. Mandara had been renting a tiny studio apartment and paying
more than half of her income in housing costs. Today she has a beautiful sunny,
one bedroom apartment and pays 30% of income for rent. Or ask David, a
part-time Town of Woodstock employee whose partner Christina is eight months
pregnant if these homes matter. Prior to moving to Woodstock Commons, they were
renting another apartment in Woodstock that didn't have a functioning bathroom!
Woodstock Commons matters not just today but for decades
to come, as these homes will continue to provide affordable and stable rental
housing for hundreds of individuals and families from Woodstock and the region.
Woodstock Commons matters to Woodstock.
From now on, the Colony of the Arts can boast that it has
affordable housing for town employees, other working families, seniors and
artists! And not just run of the mill housing, but the best kind of affordable
housing - the kind that doesn't look like affordable housing! Don't take my
word for it. A couple of weeks ago, a vendor came to the site for the first
time. He followed directions to the site but when he drove in, he thought to
himself, "This can't be the affordable housing in Woodstock, It looks like
high end housing." So he got back into his truck and drove back out to the
entrance to check the sign, to see if he was in the right place. And of course,
he was. When he told me this story, it really made my day!
While the process to get here was certainly long and
arduous, in the end, these homes matter because of the lessons they have
taught. They demonstrate that communities can indeed build quality affordable
housing. They show that a thorough review process does lead to a better outcome
but they are also testament that local review processes can and must become
more efficient, less redundant, less costly and take less time while still
achieving community goals.
It's an understatement to say that the homes at Woodstock
Commons would not be possible without an incredible array of board members,
staff, professional consultants, colleagues, elected & appointed officials,
funders, lenders, supporters and residents (for and against) who played a role
or otherwise engaged in a difficult process that produced the outstanding
results you see today. The list of people and organizations to which RUPCO is
indebted is long indeed and I hope to be able to express my overwhelming
feeling of gratitude to many this week.
Home is something special & personal to each of us.
Of course, it's many things. Here's one thing that home will always be to me:
Home is where - as a young boy - my mother told me that I could be whatever I
wanted to be. Think of everything home means to you and I hope you agree, home
really matters.
