State officials have flagged the soon-to-be-built pump house at the end of Harvard Depot Road as a groundbreaking addition to the area’s critical shortage of workforce housing. Originally planned as a simple structure containing the mechanism pumping water from Devens to Harvard’s town water system, plans changed when new regulations required installation of an accessible bathroom and associated plumbing and heating. And that changed everything, according to R.U. Kiddingme, the state’s new director of the Tiny Desperate Solutions Division of the Massachusetts Unlivable Workforce Housing Department.
“Using the Depot Road Pump Station as workforce housing aligns nicely with the state’s increasingly over-the-top workforce housing goals,” said Kiddingme. And it could be a cozy dwelling for one of the many town employees who will never earn enough to afford something bigger and still be close to their workplace, he said.
As an added incentive, prospective tenants would be delighted to know that the town will foot the bill for heat, electricity, and even a desirable connection to Devens water. Competition for this rare housing opportunity is expected to be fierce. Anyone seeking an application should contact the executive assistant to the assistant town coordinator of unaffordable housing, assuming the town can find a volunteer to fill that position.
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