ADAMS, Mass. — The Adams Housing Authority will be undergoing improvements to its walkways and parking lot.

 

The authority recently received a paving grant in December from the Executive Office of Housing and Local Communities. The grant was a total of $627,000 to fix the parking lot and make the sidewalk and ramps American With Disabilities Act-compliant.

 

Executive Director William Schrade said the grant took two years to get and he had be persistent to in pursuing the funding.

 

The Columbia Street housing project has 64 one-bedroom units for senior citizens and those with handicaps and dates to the 1970s, decades before the passage of the ADA. 

 

Some residents have a step to get out of their apartments, he said, and cracks and heaving in the sidewalks make it hard for residents to move around, especially if they have a walker.

 

"This is one of the obstacles that we run into, right, that's a huge step up, so some places we have ramps. We had to put down some temporary ones until next year," Schrade said.

 

The housing authority also recently got a resident-service coordinator.

 

"We are in a collaborative grant with the Williamstown Housing Authority and the Dalton Housing Authority, where we contract Upside 413 to have a resident service coordinator on site, one day a week," Schrade said.

 

The coordinator has been helping residents with topics such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Social Security, or even internet bills, and more.

 

The authority was also able to start a gardening program designed to make residents feel more at home and keep them active.

 

"This year I made the commitment that what we would do is we would build individual garden boxes for each resident. Matt, my maintenance guy, thought there would only be 10 people, I said I'm thinking 12 to 13," Schrade said. "The first year, we actually got 25 people to be committed to the program. I mean, as you can see, they're taking care of it."

 

The maintenance team built the raised garden boxes and residents can grow the flowers, fruits, or vegetables they want. The boxes were flourishing with many different vegetables and flowers.

 

The garden program along with the service coordinator has helped a lot of residents get out of their apartments.

 

"There's a couple of people here that I see once a year, twice a year — once when they're doing their recertification, and one time when they're doing the inspection of their apartment — otherwise we don't see them whatsoever," Schrade said. "And that's really about the aging in place [funds] ... we're trying to pull them out."

 

Where there had been three or four regulars attending programming, now it's building up to 15, 20, 25, he said. 

 

The authority has also been using its  $15,000 in aging-in-place funds it received in February to replace outdated flooring or shower valves that were harder to use.

 

"They would have the 1970s shower valve where they had to yank it, try to turn it, pull the plug out for the shower. It just wasn't made for the elderly. So what we did is part of that aging in place money is now as to rebuild the walls, put in the new shower valves."

 

Schrade explained that once a unit becomes vacant, the authority replaces flooring and shower valves, and adds grab bars in bathrooms. The funding is also available for lighting but the authority was awarded a sustainability grant to fix the lighting previously.

 

The authority is planning to put in call boxes into each unit next spring so residents can buzz people in and relock their doors.