PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The city of Pittsfield is using $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to fund the conversion of empty space at the Zion Lutheran Church into a community housing center.

“We really felt this was a direction that we should be going in,” said Jim McGrath, the church’s president. “And certainly at the end of the day, this will be an important factor in combating the concerns that we see in our city.”

The church is partnering with Berkshire Housing Services for the project.

The building’s second floor, which hasn’t been used in five years, will become micro-apartments for people exiting homelessness.

“This was all Sunday school classrooms, and I think this big room will become at least three apartments,” said Pastor Joel Bergeland, standing in an old classroom on the second floor. “There’s preliminary floorplans, and we know that things can change, but yes, eight apartments up here for sure, each a bathroom, each with a little kitchenette.”

Downstairs, the church’s empty basement space will become a community center where people can come for meals and access resources.

“The entrance will be right here,” said Bergeland, now in the basement hall. “There will be a room for quiet and napping, a technology station, and then in through here will be spaces to sit. And then back towards the stage, that’s where they’re going to put laundry and showers and bathrooms.”

Bergeland said in addition to helping people get off the streets, they hope the project will lead to building new relationships in the community.

“There’s also I think this broader human need to belong, a need to be seen,” said Bergeland. “And so for as much as we’re excited that people are actually going to get fed here and get clean here, there is also an excitement that we’re going to be rubbing shoulders with each other.”

Bergeland said the plans for the project should be finalized by the end of this year, and he hopes construction can start in the spring of 2023.