BEVERLY — Terry Desjadon has lived in her car and slept on the floor at her son’s house. For Chris Connors, home was a bench, a doorway, a hallway.
After years of homelessness, the two Beverly residents and friends are now a step closer to getting their own apartments in one of the most coveted — and affordable — spots in the city.
Desjadon and Connors were among those whose numbers were called early in a lottery to help determine who gets one of the 85 apartments in the soon-to-open Beverly Village for Living & the Arts. The final determination of who gets an apartment won’t be made until later this week. But the fact that their chances now look pretty good was a thrilling development for Desjadon and Connors.
“His face lit up,” Desjadon said of Connors when his number was called.
Beverly Village for Living & the Arts is being created through the renovation of the former Briscoe School building on Sohier Road. The historic building will be turned into 85 affordable apartments for low-income people age 55 and over and is scheduled to open this fall.
Harborlight Homes, the Beverly-based nonprofit that is co-developing the project, held the lottery last week at the Beverly Senior Center to determine the order of the wait list for the 369 approved applicants (out of an initial field of 550). A low number doesn’t necessarily mean an applicant will get an apartment because there are various categories, such as for people with disabilities or people who live in Beverly.
But, as Harborlight Executive Director Andrew DeFranza said, “Generally, the earlier your pick the better chances you have.”
The lottery, which was attended by about 40 people, had the air of a game show, with DeFranza and Bethany Blake, Harborlight’s director of philanthropy and marketing, taking turns pulling numbers out of a glass jar. Anna Siedzik, senior project manager for Harborlight Homes, explained to the audience that the pieces of paper with applicants’ numbers on them were cut precisely into one-inch by half-inch squares to make sure they had an equal chance of being picked.
As DeFranza started picking the numbers, reactions from the crowd were mostly muted. Desjadon, sitting in the back row, hugged Connors when his number was called. Another applicant, Elyssa Neumann, let out a gasp when hers came up.
“I’m usually not lucky, so I’m pretty excited to be picked early,” Neumann said. “It’s brand new. It’s a historic building. I have my fingers crossed for exposed brick and original hardwood floors.”
Patti Kransberg Whitfield said she and her husband, Barrence Whitfield, a well-known local musician, were excited about their number being picked early, but also realized it wasn’t a guarantee. Patti, her father, and her children all went to Briscoe, making them one of the many multi-generation families to have attended the school. The couple also like the project’s emphasis on the arts; the building will include six live/work studios for artists.
“I just think it would be a perfect place for us to live,” Patti said.
The lottery is required by the state of Massachusetts for any affordable housing development that receives state funds. It was the sixth lottery held by Harborlight Homes in recent years for its various affordable housing projects on the North Shore, DeFranza said.
He and the Harborlight team try to inject some humor into the proceedings — he told the audience he had new-found respect for Bingo callers — while at the same time respecting the seriousness of the circumstances in the midst of a housing crisis that has left so many people scrambling for an affordable place to live.
“It’s terrible on some level,” DeFranza said. “You feel like, goodness, this is it, really? It’s exciting and wonderful because it’s going to work for some people, but it’s equally sad because other people who need it aren’t going to get it.”
Rents at Beverly Village will range from $835 to $1,670, depending on income. The maximum income to qualify ranges from $31,170 for one person to $71,280 for two people.
DeFranza urges people whose number may have been picked late and who may not get an apartment to stick with the process. Sometimes people change their mind or move away and spots open up, he said.
Desjadon, 65, who is now living in the Garden City Towers apartments run by the Beverly Housing Authority, said she once owned a house, but ended up losing it. “The bottom can fall out real fast,” she said. The idea of moving into Beverly Village, she said, is “exhilarating.”
“It looks like it’s going to be a really nice place.”
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.