After breaking ground in October 2024, the approximately $7.2 million Mendes-Monteiro housing project is set to be completed sometime this summer.

The Mendes-Monteiro house will be a single building that houses 10 elderly clients of the Department of Mental Health, with four congregate-style units and six independent living units similar to apartments. There will be no application process as the department will choose which of their clients will live in the house.

There will also be staff on site 24-hours a day, with the staffers also living in the building full time.

“It’s a very unique set up,” said Connie Desbiens, director of Dartmouth Partners in Housing.

Desbiens, who said she’s always wanted to construct a building like the Mendes-Monteiro house, visited a similar house in Brockton eight years ago with Partners in Housing and the Department of Mental Health, which is when the project really took off. 

After getting permission to use the parcel of land on Anderson Way, Desbiens and her team started fundraising for the project until they got stalled by the Covid pandemic.

The total cost of the project is $7.2 million with $4.9 million going toward construction, she said.

Dartmouth Partners in Housing raised over $4 million for the project, with the project also being funded by the town, which invested $1 million, a loan of $500,000 to be paid back through the Affordable Homes Act and $1 million coming from the Community Preservation Act fund.

Starting back up 18 months after the pandemic began, prices had gone up by 40%, Desbiens said.

“We kind of had to start from scratch again for funding, so it was a long ordeal,” she said.

Since breaking ground in October, everything has been going smoothly, Desbiens said, explaining how she and her team have gone before the town, have gotten their permits and zoning and approached neighbors about the parcel of land.

“They were very, very supportive in the beginning and still supportive right up until now, so that’s been really good,” she said.

Desbiens attributes the project’s smooth-going to her team, the construction workers, architect and her consultant.

“It’s a really good team. We work well together, so it’s been an easy build,” she said.

The majority of construction materials are on site, and over the next few weeks construction workers will be installing doors and windows and putting up siding. Inside the building, the walls are up and the utilities have been brought in, with the next steps involving putting up drywall and insulation.

“I am extremely grateful for all of the team players, my board, the contractors, the architect — it’s just been really, really well organized and they just all work so well together, so it’s been a good experience,” Desbiens said.