Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority

The Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority (BCRHA) is a regional housing authority organized in 1980 pursuant to MGL, Chapter 121, Section 3A. BCRHA acts as a local housing authority for those 23 towns in the county that do not have a local housing authority. As a regional agency, BCRHA is also mandated to provide housing programming, and related services and technical assistance to all communities in the county. Since the late 1980’s, the Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority (BCRHA) has developed programming and services that are not typically administered by housing authorities. BCRHA has moved away from the traditional activities of solely developing and managing housing. Specifically, in 1988 in an effort to provide greater assistance to Berkshire County residents, BCRHA expanded the scope of its mission to include the development, administration, and implementation of the following: Comprehensive housing counseling programming, legal and educational counseling services, loss mitigation (anti-foreclosure) counseling, community and court-connected dispute resolution programs (i.e., mediation, conciliation, negotiation programs), homelessness prevention (Tenancy Preservation Program) services; and anti-poverty programming. BCRHA is a court certified mediation program, a HUD approved “Counseling Agency” a Community Dispute Resolution Center, a member of the Western Massachusetts Foreclosure Prevention Center, Berkshire County’s primary provider of housing stability and homelessness prevention and resolution services, and Berkshire County’s designated Consumer Services Program. In 2001, in collaboration with Berkshire Housing Development Corporation, BCRHA established the Berkshire based Housing and Consumer Education Center (HCEC), which currently serves as an umbrella program for all of the agency’s programming and services.


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