Director Kathy Keeser addresses the annual meeting last week, the first time it's been in person since 2019.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Louison House has been providing temporary shelter for more than 30 years. Now it's looking for a more permanency as the need for emergency and transitional housing has grown.
And it's going to need support from its partners and city officials to overcome resistance to the idea, Executive Director Kathy Keeser said at the shelter's annual meeting last week at the Green on Main Street.
The nonprofit housed more than 200 people in the past year. Louison House has a good relationship with the motels it's been using in Williamstown but it's not enough, said Keeser.
"We need to get a building and that's what we're looking down the future, to be able to find a place, preferably centrally located for people as possible," she said. "So that we can have a shelter so that people can have temporary housing that's safe and we can get them through."
Keeser said the agency spent around $250,000 this year on emergency motel placements and expects to spend close to $265,000 in the coming year. That's about two-thirds of its emergency funding.
And while the funding seems secure for the next decade, housing people in motels comes with problems that a permanent location would solve since it would be staffed and have security. Keeser said she's been in talks with Mayor Jennifer Macksey, who attended the meeting, and local developers.
One project moving forward is young adult housing in a building the nonprofit owns on Bracewell Avenue
"We kept it permanent supportive housing for a few years and then we realized it needed lots of work," Keeser said. The building is being renovated into a number efficiency units and a couple larger units for youth ages 18 to 25.
Louison House has also helped more than 600 people with housing assistance this year and provided 64 with financial assistance and household goods to move into housing. Another 250 received passes for the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority and hundreds of others were aided in making out applications and connected to other resources. Permanent supportive and transitional housing was also used at Flood House and Terry's Place.
Last year was the nonprofit shelter's first million-dollar budget; this year, it's anticipating $1.3 million as it expands programming, including in Pittsfield.
"Our biggest thing is really the day-to-day emergencies that come up for people that we've considered neighbors, emergency supportive services," said Keeser. "That's what we're doing all the time."
Two people caught in those emergency situations are now members of the advisory council resurrected earlier this year.
Local historian Paul W. Marino suddenly found himself without shelter when he returned home from surgery rehabilitation to four inches of water in his basement.
"Louison House is the organization that took me in and gave me a place to stay while my house was being put to rights," he said. "And I was very impressed with the organization and the staff.
Marino was invited to join the council and created some informational pamphlets that display his humor.
"I'm very glad to be on the committee," he said. "It's a great way of giving back to the organization that helped me and it's also a way of helping new people that were coming in."
The other member had lost his apartment several years ago when his building was shut down by code enforcement. Louison House took him in at midnight and found him temporary shelter.
"I had already, slowly over 40 years, become a hermit, virtually a shut-in," he said, with no understanding of the housing industry or how to get help. "But most of all, I was just frightened and hopeless."
Louison House helped get him into the Adams Housing Authority.
"I'd like to thank Kathy Keeser and all the members of Louison House for their grace in the eye and my storm," he said.
Keeser said the nonprofit would not be able to do the work it does without the help of its many partners — whom she called out during the meeting — and the hardworking staff.
"Louison House is not an easy job, it's not an easy place to work," she said. "But it's our partners who get us through everything."
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Newly elected Moderator Seth Alexander kept the meeting moving.
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The annual town meeting sped through most of the warrant on Wednesday night, swiftly passing a total budget of $5.1 million for fiscal 2025 with no comments.
Close to 70 voters at Clarksburg School also moved adoption of the state's Community Preservation Act to the November ballot after a lot of questions in trying to understand the scope of the act.
The town operating budget is $1,767,759, down $113,995 largely because of debt falling off. Major increases include insurance, utilities and supplies; the addition of a full-time laborer in the Department of Public Works and an additional eight hours a week for the accountant.
The school budget is at $2,967,609, up $129,192 or 4 percent over this year. Clarksburg's assessment to the Northern Berkshire Vocational School District is $363,220.
Approved was delaying the swearing in of new officers until after town meeting; extending the one-year terms of moderator and tree warden to three years beginning with the 2025 election; switching the licensing of dogs beginning in January and enacting a bylaw ordering dog owners to pick up after their pets. This last was amended to include the words "and wheelchair-bound" after the exemption for owners who are blind.
The town more recently established an Agricultural Committee and on Wednesday approved a right-to-farm bylaw to protect agriculture.
Larry Beach of River Road asked why anyone would be against and what the downside would be. Select Board Chair Robert Norcross said neighbors of farmers can complain about smells and livestock like chickens.
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