Patriot’s Day had special meaning in Dartmouth this year. After spending years trying to secure funding for low-income housing for veterans, the Dartmouth Housing Authority took a major leap forward this week and broke ground.

At a ground breaking ceremony held on Sept. 11, representatives from the town, the state and funders gathered at the O'Connor-Sisson House, a three-story building on Route 6, to mark the occasion.

Construction will begin soon and will be completed in the spring of 2016.

Once finished, the building will be used for low-income veterans’ housing, complete with nine housing units, a community center and an office for supportive services.

During the construction phase, the garage in the back of the property will be demolished, the inside of the house will be gutted and there will be an addition added to the building.

The house was formerly used as a State Police barracks. The Dartmouth Housing Authority acquired the property three years ago and spent the past few years seeking funding. The project will cost around $2.6 million, most of which is funded through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

“The financing is complex. We didn’t make it in the first two rounds of funding,” said Connie Desbiens, executive director of the Dartmouth Housing Authority.

“The Friday before Christmas, I got a phone call, and they said, ‘Guess what? You just got fully funded.’ It was the merriest Christmas I’ve ever had,” said Desbiens. “I’m driving down the highway in tears.”

To help navigate the complexities of the funding process, the Dartmouth Housing Authority paired with Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development. Gabby Geller, a development manager for the institute, said her organization does consulting work for social service providers who are stepping into real estate.

“We do all of the packaging for the financing. We’re the project managers, basically, in place of the Housing Authority,” said Geller, who has worked on the O’Connor-Sisson House project for the past two and a half years.

Geller said receiving affordable housing dollars is challenging because the field is so competitive.

“It’s hard to get through as a new project because there are a limited amount of dollars. It’s fairly routine that you will have to apply once or twice,” she said.

Late last year, the Housing Authority applied for funding through the Housing Preservation Stabilization Trust Fund from the state and was successful.

“It worked out perfectly because that round of funding came with service dollars of $2,500 a unit and rental subsidy vouchers for the residents,” said Geller. “It couldn’t have worked out any better. We ended up with $2,500 a year to provide services that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

The tenets of the house will pay 30 percent of their income toward rent and the rest will come from the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program.

Geller said part of the reason why they were successful in securing state funds is because the project had received local support early on from Town Meeting members. Citizens previously approved to allocate Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to the project, totaling $510,000.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, Roger Herzog of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, noted the importance of local support to acquire state funding.

“I want acknowledge how important it is that the Town of Dartmouth stepped up with over $500,000 of local funds to support this development. That is the kind of partnership it takes among funders to create this badly needed housing,” said Herzog.

“We have over 500 units of permanent supportive housing for veterans in Massachusetts currently under development. And your nine units here are an important part of that,” he said.

Desbiens said the first round of occupants will be selected through a lottery system, and the process will begin once construction has started. Services will be provided to occupants through Coastline Elderly Service and Veterans Transitional Housing.

“We’ll be providing the resident services here and making sure that all the veterans’ needs are met, like meals, homemaking and personal care. And we’ll be collaborating with the Council on Aging,” said Paula Shiner, a representative from Coastline.

The namesakes of the building, William O’Connor and Charlie Sisson, were mentioned throughout the groundbreaking ceremony. Both served as heads of the Dartmouth Housing Authority Board and both passed away while the project was underway.

Wayne Whalley, vice-chair of the Dartmouth Housing Authority, remembered being a board member beside the two.

“If you needed anything, and Charlie knew about it, you got it. He was a person who loved people, and he loved to take care of the elderly,” said Whalley.

“They were instrumental in getting it started,” he said. “They were great guys.”