Our Mission & Vision | Impact South County

Mission & Vision

Our Mission

The mission of Impact South County, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is to create housing and economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income households in the southern Berkshires.

Impact South County builds low and middle-income housing and creates living-wage jobs by working collaboratively with town governments, open space organizations, and other local nonprofits.

We identify sites, secure financing, and carry out development projects that resonate with the natural beauty of the southern Berkshires.

Over the last ten years, we have leveraged over $43 million in public and private investment for Southern Berkshire County and created more than 120 units of low and middle-income housing.

Join us in making the southern Berkshires a beautiful and livable community for all who live and work here.

Our Vision

Our work increases the local affordable housing supply and encourages sustainable economic growth using the following guiding principles:

Providing housing options to enable people to live and work in the same community
Prioritizing the creation of increased housing density in town centers, thus preserving open space
Supporting locally-owned businesses that contribute to a robust local economy, keeping profits in the community and adding to the local tax base
Promoting job creation that pays a “living wage”
Creating developments that engage Smart Growth principles: utilizing mixed land uses, compact design, distinctive and attractive communities, preservation of natural beauty, varied transportation choices, and stakeholder collaboration in development
Incorporating energy efficiency and green building techniques and materials
Encouraging collaboration with other organizations, regionally and nationally, to best leverage available expertise and capacities
Maintaining community support through both meaningful engagement and reverence for local beauty, culture, and commerce

Massachusetts Community Development Corporations

We collaborate with more than a dozen other western Mass CDCs to serve residents of the Commonwealth’s four western counties with the support of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC). To find out more about these other Western MA CDCs, and to see which of these CDCs have programs to meet your needs, visit their website.

Service Area

The Impact South County serves all of Berkshire County, focusing primarily on fifteen towns south of Pittsfield. The region is largely rural, with increasing development pressure and an economy driven by hospitality and tourism. High land costs—fueled by vacation and second-home markets—combined with declining wages make housing increasingly unaffordable. This has contributed to an aging and shrinking population, highlighting a strong need for affordable rental and homeownership opportunities.