MCHA condo lottery outcome draws interest

MARBLEHEAD-Fifteen hopeful future homeowners – four of them with Marblehead connections – are awaiting the results of a lottery drawing Wednesday that could win them a four-bedroom condominium home on West Shore Drive for the bargain price of $207,900.The 1 p.m. lottery drawing will mark the culmination of an affordable housing program run by the Marblehead Community Housing Corporation, which owns the condo across the street from the Marblehead Veterans of Foreign Wars and has overseen its rehab.The lottery was open to families of four to eight people with incomes ranging from $66,150-$87,350.?We?re very excited,” said Marblehead Fair Housing Committee Chairman Dirk Isbrandtsen, whose committee includes most of the board members of the MCHC.?We?re trying to use this as a model for future activities.”Isbrandtsen credited consultant Jim Haskell with overseeing the project on a day-to-day basis.The MCHC grew out of the work of the Fair Housing Committee and was established as a non-profit organization in the mid-1990s, with the capacity to acquire and manage affordable housing.Its first major project was to purchase a former elementary school from the town at a nominal price, renovate the building and convert it to the Sewell Building with four comfortable, spacious, affordable apartments. The corporation manages the building and seeks new applicants from the town and nearby towns when vacancies occur. MCHC regularly searches for town-owned and other sites with potential for development as affordable housing.Other Fair Housing Committee members include Ann Cohen, Paul Crosby, Don Davies, Sarah Drewy, Mimi Hollister, Bonnie Howard, Kurt James, Gordon King, Joan McIntyre, and Jan Robinson. In addition to them the members of the board of directors of the Marblehead Community Housing Corporation include Andrew Christensen and Cynthia Latham.