Deerfield is seeking state approval from legislators at the State House (above) for the right to establish a nonprofit group that would help senior citizens with their housing problems.

A town in western Massachusetts is seeking state approval to establish a private nonprofit corporation that would help seniors with their housing needs.

Deerfield has sent a home rule petition to the state Legislature for the second time requesting state lawmakers’ approval to establish the Deerfield Senior Housing Corp., a group that would provide help to seniors for home improvements and modifications and seek other types of solutions for seniors’ housing problems.

The home rule petition to create the group, approved by the town in April 2003, was refiled last year by Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, and Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst. Because the corporation would be a quasi-public organization with a board elected by the town and since it will use some town funding, it needs state approval.

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing heard the home rule petition two weeks ago at a public hearing, but no action was taken on it.

‘Great Need’
The idea to start up the nonprofit corporation came from the Deerfield Senior Housing Ad Hoc Committee, which was formed in August 2000 and charged with determining the senior housing needs in the town and finding ways to address those needs.

The group conducted a survey in Deerfield, a rural community located between Northampton and Greenfield, about four years ago, and discovered that there was a “great need” for help with home modifications that would enable elderly residents to remain in their homes, according to Lili Dwight, a Deerfield resident who is chairman of the senior housing committee.

Sixteen percent of the town’s 4,750 residents are 62 years old or older, according to the U.S. Census taken in 2000.

Dwight said the group explored a variety of possibilities for helping seniors to stay in their homes as they age, including the use of so-called ECHO homes, which stands for Elder Cottage Housing Opportunities. Those small, modular, portable homes can be placed in the back or side yard of an existing home and connected to the home’s major systems, providing space in which caregivers or elderly parents can live. The modular homes cost $25,000 or more per unit, according to AARP.

“We thought, ‘What if we had an entity that had an inventory of echo homes?’ This entity could own the echo homes and then when someone in town said, ‘I need an echo home,’ they could rent it out,” she said.

The committee decided that one of the best ways to help seniors in Deerfield would be to establish a nonprofit organization that would be able to obtain grants and come up with creative solutions, such as renting out echo homes, to meet the various housing needs of seniors in Deerfield, Dwight said.

But keeping in mind that the committee was charged with coming up with “civic response to senior housing,” and wanting to keep the town involved, the group decided that the organization’s board should be elected by the town.

The corporation would require at least one paid part-time professional who would initially be responsible for obtaining grants, conducting a survey of the town’s seniors to identify their needs, and working with the board and other volunteers to respond to seniors’ housing desires, according to Dwight.

Even though the corporation would rely on grants, the entity also would seek funding from the town, including an estimated $60,000 for start-up costs and a small amount from the town budget annually.

Dwight acknowledged that she is often questioned about why the committee is seeking to create an entity with a town-elected board that requires state approval instead of an appointed board.

Her response: “You need an agile civic response as opposed to a monolithic governmental response. There’s a distinction there.”

If the Legislature doesn’t approve the home rule petition, Dwight said the committee may seek to establish a nonprofit group that wouldn’t include an elected board.

“We’ll stick with this until we get an answer,” she said.

Before coming up with the idea for nonprofit housing corporation, Dwight’s committee attempted to get the Franklin County Regional Housing and Redevelopment Authority to build senior housing in Deerfield.

The committee conducted a town-wide survey in 2000 that revealed that there were about 350 senior residents who would have moved into senior housing if it were available in Deerfield, says Dwight.

The survey clearly showed that there was a demand for senior or retirement housing and that if the town had more of that type of housing, it could be filled with Deerfield residents, never mind other towns, said Dwight

Seeing the need, the committee urged town leaders to get the regional housing authority to create more senior housing. After a Town Meeting vote in 2001, the Board of Selectmen asked the leaders of the regional housing authority to build senior homes in Deerfield. Nothing materialized from those efforts, according to Dwight.

Rep. Kulik did not return calls seeking comment about the home rule petition.