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The Town of Bennington remains in desperate need of affordable housing for the people who make a living there. Many workers live elsewhere (for example, across the border in New York State) and commute into Bennington because the cost of living is too high compared to what people are able to earn in wages.
Bennington County Habitat for Humanity developed three adjacent lots on North Branch Street (296, 320 and 334 North Branch Street) in the Town of Bennington. We demolished the blighted house at 296 North Branch and removed the trailer at 320 North Branch. We rehabbed the existing residence at 334 North Branch and sold it to a partner family through our homeownership program. Energy efficiency work was the affiliate’s main concern at this house, which we believe was built in the 1930s. Through the hard work of volunteers, the energy efficiency work completed on the rehab resulted in a 58.9% air sealing reduction and an estimated 44% of total heat savings.
Mance Engineering prepared a Development Sketch Plan for the three North Branch Street lots. Based on this plan, six families have purchased newly constructed homes. These families are income-qualified as Habitat partner families. We intend to keep these houses perpetually affordable to people earning less than the area median income. The Town of Bennington approved the Site Plan for this new development in August 2016.
We began construction of our first single-family house with the Kornn family at the end of May 2016, and the family moved home in April 2017. We began our second house in development in the fall 2016 through an exciting partnership with the Southwest Career Development Center. The students of the CDC’s Building and Trades Division, under the able direction of Instructor Brian Coon, built this house and was completed it in the 2017-2018 school year. The house was sold to an income-qualified family through our Habitat homeownership program. The Forestry and Heavy Equipment Division of the CDC had a hand in preparing the development of infrastructure and road work.
Through the summer of 2017, Mark Onorato Excavating put in the infrastructure and road (Corcoran’s Way) for the North Branch Street Development. The Town accepted the dedication of the road in late 2019. By December 2020, six families were homeowners along Corcoran’s Way.
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