Bedford Green Apartments, a 55+ veterans’ supportive housing community managed by full-service real estate and property management firm Peabody Properties, recently celebrated its third year in existence with live music, honorifics, and raffled prizes.
Bedford Green Apartments is one of four permanent supportive housing developments managed by Peabody Properties; it was designated as such by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is dedicated solely to housing formerly homeless veterans. These housing communities are excellent examples of the private, non-profit, and government sectors coming together to fix a societal problem successfully, namely permanent affordable housing for homeless veterans.
Over the last three years Bedford Green Apartments has built a strong sense of community both among the residents and staff and with the greater Bedford community. Residents have enjoyed summer hula celebrations; Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Spring Fling holiday parties; iPods for Wounded Veterans events; and a recent all-expenses-paid day trip to Boston that brought together veterans from Bedford Green Apartments as well as other Peabody veterans communities (Pleasant Street Apartments in Beverly and Howard Apartments in Brockton) and featured lunch at the Union Oyster House and a visit to the New England Aquarium. Bedford Green residents also prep and provide a meal at the local Bedford Community Table once a year, and coordinate gatherings and cookouts for sporting events and other special occasions. Over the years, residents have also attended a Lowell Spinners game and participated in honor flights to the Washington Memorial, the Strongwater Farm (of Tewksbury) Equestrian Therapy Program (and Strongwater Farm Golf Tournament), and VA2K Walk for Veterans. The Bedford Green Game Room, established after the community’s first year, continues to host a monthly billiards tournament as well, and the community also enjoys a resident-run guitar group and a community garden managed in collaboration with Bedford VAMCs CHOIR (Center for Healthcare Organization Implementation Research).
Highlights of this year’s party included recognition of the 32 original residents of the community, as well as live music (including a performance by the community’s Service Manager Jon McCumber on drums) and raffle items such as Red Sox tickets (donated by Peabody Properties), a $100 gift card from Tuscan Kitchen , framed and matted nature photos taken by a second-grade class from Hanscom Air Force Base, and other gift cards and items donated from various local businesses.
“The caring, professional, generous and truly compassionate guidance over the past three years has been amazing to me,” said Dana Lee Newcombe, one of the original residents at Bedford Green. “I’ve never had such an embracing experience in my life. The collective efforts between staff, VASH, transportation, maintenance and many residents is to me such a beautiful, selfless and comforting thing to experience.”
“Bedford Green is such a special place, and it was wonderful to see all the residents and staff come together to mark this occasion, along with people we work with from VAMC and other members of the outside community,” added Jacquelyn Larivee, Resident Services Manager with Peabody Properties, Inc. “It’s been a great three years, and we look forward to all the future holds!”
