Housing Greenfield Meeting notes — 02/19/2026
Present: Susan Worgaftik, Peg Hall, Nancy Hazard, Amy Cahillane, Edie Heinemann, Brace Rennels, Lexi Turner, Garth Shaneyfelt, Jen Hale, Pamela Goodwin, Mike Penn-Strah, Mary McClintock
UPDATES
Hope Street—Amy Cahillane: Plans for community involvement in the development of the Request for Proposals (RFP) of the Hope Street property have been finalized.
- 3/2 6 pm-8 pm: initial broad community meeting at the Jon Zon Community Center
- 3/3 Precinct 5 community meeting at the YMCA
- 4/2 follow-up broad community meeting on the RFP
- 4/8 follow-up Precinct 5 community meeting on the RFP
Also there will be times for people to speak at Planning Board and City Council Economic Development Committee meetings; tabling at the library, coffee hours, open zoom office hours on Tuesdays 1-2 pm; through an online forum and through email at HopeStreet@greenfield-ma.gov.
Amy expects that the Request for Proposals will be issued in April. There will be a review committee including a resident of Precinct 5. Targeted outreach will be made to the key institutional neighbors of the Hope Street lot including the Court House, Service Net, etc. A flyer with all this information will be available soon.
HUD Lead Mitigation—Amy Cahillane: The City of Greenfield has received a $2.8 million contract to provide de-leading for homes that meet Community Development Block Grant guidelines. This will include both renters and homeowners. It is estimated that it can cover the de-leading of 65 units and should start in April. The contract will cover services over 4 years. $400,000 of it is part of the Healthy Home program and would allow payment for additional small repairs. The city will be doing outreach for these services beginning in April. When we have this information, Housing Greenfield will work to get the information out, as well. As it applies to rental units as well as homeowners, this may be helpful in relation to announcements regarding the rental inspection ordinance.
Affordable Housing Trust—Amy Cahillane: A draft ordinance for the affordable housing trust has been created and was sent to Councilors Gordon and Brown. They have asked Councilor Sibbison-Alves to move it forward. As Councilor Sibbison-Alves is a new councilor, it is likely that she will move it forward later this spring when she has had a bit more experience as a councilor. This ordinance will make it easier for the city to accept gifts or income specifically designated for affordable housing and also move the use of these funds quickly as the committee designated for this work will not have to go before City Council to move the use of these funds along to their intended purpose. Funds can be used for the purpose of buying property, repairing property, etc. as long as they meet affordable housing guidelines.
Warming Center—Amy Cahillane: As of February 19th, the warming center has been open for 42 evenings (504 hours). There have been 20 community members and 26 public safety officers who have staffed the warming center. The average number of guests has been 12-14 people per night. The present budget is set for 45 days, but it may be possible to move some budget line items around to support further staffing if needed.
The Interfaith Council has been very helpful in getting more supplies to meet the needs of the guests.
We still need to do more to get the word out, especially when we have to do so on short notice. Amy will check on whether the digital sign in front of the fire station can be used to announce that the warming center will be open. As soon as a decision is made that the warming center will be open, information goes out the service organizations, social media, and the digital sign on the Common.
The Departments of Community & Economic Development and Planning are working with masters students from the Conway School of Landscape Design to create a citywide Bike Plan will identify existing bike infrastructure and usage, and identify prioritized ideas to improve bike safety, connectivity and accessibility. While a public meeting has already been held, we are continuing to collect public input via an online survey, available by clicking HERE. We would love to have your input, whether you are a current biker, former biker or prospective future bike user.
Community Preservation Committee—Susan Worgaftik: The Greenfield Community Preservation Committee has 3 housing proposals before it: 176 Main Street affordable housing (RDI); renovation of 319 Deerfield Street for two additional affordable apartments at 100% area median income (GHAI); and an expansion of the special fund for first and last month rent for people with Section 8 vouchers who might lose the apartment because they can pay the rent, but do not have the first and last months’ rent to secure it. All of these proposals have been through the question-and-answer sessions that the CPC conducts as part of its process. They have been recorded and are on the City’s Youtube site. The proposals are available at https://greenfield-ma.gov/government/boards_and_commissions/community_preservation_committee_funding.php. There will be a public hearing on March 19th at 5 pm at the Jon Zon Community Center where the public will be able to make their thoughts known about any of these and the other projects being considered. Also, in the beginning of March there will be a public response form available where the public will be able to comment on the proposals, as well. All of this information will be included in the Committee’s deliberations which are scheduled for March 26th.
Rental Housing Inspection Ordinance—Susan Worgaftik: John Garrett and Susan have presented the draft ordinance to some landlords who made some good suggestions on how to consolidate language. There are also a few minor questions to be worked out, but we expect that the ordinance will be submitted to the Council in March. Housing Greenfield will keep you posted about where it is in the process.
Responses to Our Questions regarding the Supportive Housing opening this summer—Susan Worgaftik: Susan met with Keleigh BenEzra to learn more about the process that will be followed for housing people in the 36 units that will open up on Wells Street this summer.
Referrals will come through the Continuum of Care which keeps a listing of all the unhoused folks in the Franklin, Hampshire and Berkshire Counties—including people living in shelters. All those applications will be assessed. As the units on Wells Street will be project based section 8 apartments, all those who are eligible will have to have passed a CORI and must be documented. The evaluation of possible applicants has begun. The emphasis will be on Franklin and Hampshire County residents. The site will have both a case manager for the tenants and a leasing coordinator. As we get closer to the actual availability of the units, who has been selected will become clearer. If you know of someone who should be on the list for these units, please ask them to go to CSO and ask for an application.
Food service in the new building, when it opens, will be limited to residents of the shelter and the apartments.
During severe weather, there will be day spaces available at the new shelter and the availability of some additional beds in common areas depending on contracts with the state.
Presently, the shelter provides a cold breakfast and a cold lunch and a hot dinner Monday-Friday from 7 am to 4 pm.
Housing in the Former Center School on Abercrombie Road—Nancy Hazard called noted that we should celebrate the fact that there will be 11 new market rate 1 and 2 bedroom apartments in the former Center School on Abercrombie Road. They were built by the Zaccheo brothers. There will be an open house in late February.
Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Fair Housing Listening Session—Pamela Goodwin: Pamela, Susan, Amy, and 77 other people from the region attended a meeting the EOHLC hosted to discuss fair housing issues. We think they heard our concerns about regional equity on a variety of housing concerns. As the follow-up from this meeting (and the others around the state) are consolidated, Housing Greenfield will keep members informed about any further actions that need to be done.
DISCUSSIONS
Budget Priorities of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness—Susan Worgaftik
The group agreed that we wanted to hear more about the programs and the priorities from Pamela Schwartz of the Network. Susan will invite Pamela to our March 9th meeting to discuss the priorities and answer questions.
Article on Housing and Democracy—Susan Worgaftik
The group thought this article is important and that we should take the key points from the article, add how this relates to us locally, and make it a My Turn. For the next meeting, it was suggested that we put together a listing of key points and discuss the local relevance.
Next meeting: MONDAY, MARCH 9TH 6:30 PM VIA ZOOM.
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Published: in Updates
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Last Edited: February 24, 2026