Roberto Tuesca is putting his sweat equity into his Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity home being built on South Deerfield Road for him, his wife and two children in Conway. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Crews work on framing walls for a new home being built by Pioneer Valley Habitat For Humanity on South Deerfield Road in Conway. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Roberto Tuesca, at right, is putting his sweat equity into his Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity home being built on South Deerfield Road for him, his wife and two children in Conway. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

CONWAY — Construction is underway on one of the first affordable housing units in Conway as the town’s partnership with Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity begins to bear fruit.

The first walls of a new three-bedroom home were assembled by volunteers Saturday morning, and work will continue through the year as the future homeowners plant their roots in their new community. The parcel of land at 638 South Deerfield Road was donated by a private landowner, and the project was funded by donations and a $45,000 Community Preservation Act allocation at Conway’s 2021 Town Meeting.

“We are able to put this community effort together so they can stretch those dollars and have a place of their own,” said Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Megan McDonough. “We’re so excited that we are able to do this first house in Conway.”

Selectboard member Philip Kantor, who attended the wall-raising ceremony on Saturday, said he was very excited to welcome new Conway residents to town.

“When you see how hard it is to keep your own kids in town — they go off to college and don’t come back, and part of that is because there’s no housing for them,” he said. “(The family) chose Conway and that’s really important.”

Conway, Kantor said, is a “homogenous” community where people often stay where they are, meaning there are few opportunities for new families to move in.

“There’s very little for sale because we’re such an awesome community and they don’t want to move out, which is great, but we don’t have the turnover of housing stock that other towns have,” Kantor said. “It’s great to just have people move into town.”

The home, which was designed by Kuhn Riddle Architects, will feature solar panels from PV Squared to maximize energy efficiency.

“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for the family to set down some roots,” McDonough said. “Conway saw itself as a welcoming community and that was really the ethos Habitat would like to see.”

With this home, Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity is helping establish one of Conway’s first affordable housing projects. While not inclusive of all affordable housing units, the state’s subsidized housing inventory states, as of December 2020, there were zero subsidized housing units in the town, according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

“There’s a huge shortage in the number of units needed to just meet the needs of the community,” McDonough said. “I think people have been aware of the increase in housing costs recently that is pricing out the people who work in our communities, our teachers, social service workers, our disabled neighbors and our elder neighbors who find it harder and harder to find a safe place they can call home.”

Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1989 and has built homes for more than 50 low-income families in Hampshire and Franklin counties. As part of the long-term partnership with the organization, the homeowners invest “sweat equity,” by participating in the home’s construction. Once 250 hours of labor, alongside volunteers, is complete, Habitat for Humanity sells the home to the family with an affordable mortgage.

In all, the process takes a couple years, according to McDonough, as there is about a year of pre-building work and then a year of construction.

Finding places to build housing, especially in rural communities, is “always one of the biggest challenges,” McDonough said.

“We’ve been looking toward how we can expand our reach in Franklin County,” McDonough said. “When Conway found us, we couldn’t be happier.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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