The Chapin School Veterans Housing project, a partnership of O’Connell Development Group and Soldier On, a not-for-profit group dedicated to providing housing for homeless veterans, converted a 120-year-old building from a vacant elementary school to a 43-unit apartment building for homeless veterans. All the units are one bedroom and come fully furnished. ODG earned a fee as the developer of the building and Western Builders renovated the building. Appleton Corporation provided Management Oversight Services for the lease-up.

The $7.3 million rehabilitation was funded from a variety of different sources including affordable housing grants, low income housing tax credits, historic tax credits, and City of Chicopee loan. The complex is set up as a limited equity housing cooperative which means the residents own their unit as a member of the building cooperative.  In order to qualify to live in the building a resident must be a veteran and earn no more than the federal low-income requirements of about $29,000 a year. Each resident first pays $2,500 for a share in the cooperative, and then pays a monthly rent that is 30 percent of their income.