Light of God Blog – CCU Lowell

In the midst of a severe crisis of homelessness, All Souls House is a project conceived by Christ Church United in Lowell to provide permanent housing to five homeless families.  This effort comes in the context of expanding the church’s mission to respond to those most in need and as a direct outgrowth of the church’s 1.5 year visioning process.  The overriding goal of the All Souls House project is to make a contribution to ending the crisis of homelessness in Lowell.  The specific objective is to provide safe, comfortable and affordable housing for five homeless families with the support services they need to thrive.

The project will involve converting a portion of the church’s administration building (1 Bartlett Street) to 5 two-bedroom apartments.  These apartments will each include a kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom, and two bedrooms.  Common laundry facilities will also be provided.  Reserved parking spaces will be created.  Where cost-effective and possible, energy efficient elements will be incorporated into the building.  Architect Jay Mason produced these architectural schematic drawings or or these (pdf format, 3.47 MB).

A collaboration has been initiated with Cascap, Inc., a non-profit Cambridge agency with considerable experience developing affordable housing, to develop the project.  Support services such as case management, job training, and others will be provided to the families by Community Teamwork, Inc., the local Community Action Agency.

In addition to the five apartments for homeless families, a studio apartment with kitchenette, dining area, living room/sleeping area, and bath will be included for an on-site Resident Manager—possibly someone with professional social services training.

In addition, for church use, the project will include rehabilitation of existing space as classrooms (5), offices (3), and a new kitchen.  A new lobby and entrance to the administration building, plus two handicapped-accessible bathrooms, will be created.

Jay Mason, architect and Principal of Architectural Consulting Services, has been retained and has completed schematic design.  Several discussions have been held with the City of Lowell regarding zoning, parking, and building use issues.

Terry Anderson, Principal of Anderson Development, is providing development consulting services and acting as project manager.

Members and friends of Christ Church United in Lowell are excited and enthusiastic about the prospects of this adaptive re-use of its administrative building to expand its missional emphasis to those most in need.  More friends and supporters are necessary for this project to come to fruition.

For more information or to help with Christ Church United’s efforts, please contact Terry Anderson at celloanderson@verizon.net .