Brewster Housing Gets $6.7M

Rentals form only 17% of Brewster's housing stock. The town hopes to change that equation with the help of a $6.7 M state grant for Spring Rock Village.

What is Spring Rock Village?

12 July 2024 — BREWSTER, MA — Spring Rock Village is an affordable housing initiative at 0 Millstone Road in Brewster. With likely completion in Summer 2026, the space will offer 45 rental units: fifteen one-bedroom, 25 two-bedroom, and five three-bedroom. Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC), who will manage the property, plan to lease the units at a range of price brackets. Thirty five of the units will be aimed at households making up to 60% of the Area Median Income, and 10 of the units at households making up to 80% of the Area Median Income. Twenty percent of the units will target families in extremely low income brackets at risk of homelessness. Spring Rock Village will also include a bus stop for easy transportation to employment and educational opportunities, HAC told LCTV.

What did the process for Spring Rock Village look like?

In 2018, Brewster bought a parcel of land with frontage on Millstone Road and began thinking about how the property could help the town’s low-income residents, Assistant Town Manager Donna Kalinick told us. Over the subsequent years, Brewster collected feedback about the needs of the town and accepted proposals for the future of the property. POAH and HAC’s proposal, Kalinick said, stood out, and the town has worked with the organizations to plan for an execution of this vision that will meet residents’ needs. POAH and HAC will sign a 99-year lease with the town, and construction is slated to begin in early 2025.

How does the Affordable Housing Development Grant help Spring Rock Village?

The $6.7 million-dollar grant will help POAH and HAC with construction and fees of Spring Rock Village. The grant also encourages greener housing developments, which Spring Rock Village has made a priority through a village-style layout and commitment to carbon-neutral energy efficiency, HAC told us. Kalinick shared that oftentimes proposals like this require several rounds of applications and revisions before receiving state funding, but Spring Rock Village received the grant with its first application — a sign of the strength of the project and the needs of Brewster, Kalinick said.

In addition to the grant, POAH and HAC have received $500,000 from Brewster, $480,000 from other Cape Cod towns, $4.8 million in soft subsidy, and $9.3 million in other federal and state tax credits. All of this funding will go toward the construction of Spring Rock Village. As of fall 2023, the budget was slated at just over $27 million. 

What other affordable housing goals does Brewster have?

After purchasing the Spring Rock Village property in 2018, Kalinick said, Brewster made a further commitment to affordable housing, including hiring a housing coordinator — Jill Scalise — and starting several other initiatives. The Brewster Housing Trust, a committee of residents and town officials, oversees these initiatives, which have included the Brewster Woods affordable housing community, a home on Yankee Drive which they renovated and leased, and a number of grant and rental assistance programs. Kalinick said this work is far from over, and Brewster has other initiatives, both community engagement and building-focused, to meet Brewster residents’ needs.

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