The Housing Authority is staffed by four full-time and two part-time employees. The Director is Bradley Gordon. The Housing Authority annually administers a budget of approximately $250,000. All of this money is received through federal, state, or local grants. The Housing Authority’s services are provided throughout the County and are distributed approximately as follows: central = 60%, north = 25%, and south = 15%.

Mr. Gordon describes the Housing Authority as a non-traditional housing authority. This is because a relatively small percentage of the services are spent managing low-income housing. The Housing Authority owns and manages twenty-two elderly and eight family low-income housing units in Sheffield. This is a program that is funded by the State. The only other housing managed by the Housing Authority consists of forty-one single occupancy low-income units in North Adams. These units are subsidized through a federal housing program.

The vast majority of the Housing Authority’s work involves the provision of services that are designed to prevent homelessness and the dislocation of residents from their current residences through early intervention. These services are provided to landlords and tenants in all income brackets, but the vast majority of clients are from lower incomes. These services include legal counseling, mediation, resolution of landlord-tenant disputes, case management, housing research, budget counseling, and home ownership counseling. These services are provided to approximately 1,400 households throughout the County. Funding is provided through a variety of state, federal, and local grants.