More than 'just beautiful': A look inside new Easton home for people with brain injuries

EASTON − When the Brockton nonprofit BAMSI acquired a 15-acre property on Foundry Street in Easton, they didn't know 13 acres were protected habitats for native salamanders and Blanding's turtles.

That left the builders with 2 acres of the property, which was donated by the town, on which to build a 6,500-square-foot, single-story home for people with acquired brain injuries, a task the builders had to complete without disturbing the wildlife.

On Thursday, after a year-and-a-half of construction, BAMSI unveiled the new facility at 300 Foundry St., where eight patients with disabilities will start to move in next month.

"We want this to feel like a person's home and not a 'program,'" said BAMSI Director Kim St. Pierre.

The home is now the second home in Easton for people with acquired brain injuries, and one of many similar facilities scattered across the state. The building is split in half, one side for the four men and the other for the four women who are set to live there.

St. Pierre said there are roughly 144 people within the region on the waitlist to leave their temporary nursing homes and move into a permanent facility like the one they just opened, where at least three staff and one nurse are available 24 hours a day. There are only about 15 spots available.

"The ideal is 90 days (in a nursing home), then you come to a long-term facility like this one," St. Pierre said. "Many have been in a (nursing) home for a long time."

Built-in accessibility

Brockton-born brothers Joe and Jim Poillucci have built between 70 and 80 such homes across Massachusetts. This latest facility is one of the largest.

"We want to make sure the house isn't just beautiful, but it's helpful for people," Joe Poillucci said.

Every hallway and doorway is wide enough to fit a hospital bed. Each stove, oven and closet shelf is low enough for residents in wheelchairs to use. The plates and bowls are always kept in low drawers.

"A lot of the stuff is based around protective technology," St. Pierre said.

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Every inch of the house is planned intentionally for accessibility but is disguised to look like a typical home.

The bottom half of every wall, almost like a unique wainscoting, is lined with gray carpeting to protect the walls from dents made by wheelchairs. Behind the carpet, at any protruding corner at risk of being bumped by a moving hospital bed, is a cement board.

Poillucci said that in the past, the so-called ABI homes came with built-in ramps. But now, every entrance and exit is at ground level.

In the bedrooms and bathrooms, metal tracks painted white run along the ceiling for the building's lift system. Residents can be strapped in, and the machine lifts them, helping residents who need assistance standing and sitting. The machines can hold up to 450 pounds, but in one room, the bariatric machine can lift up to 700 pounds.

Even the bridge that serves as an entryway onto the property from the main street allows the protected wildlife to cross underneath without the possibility of getting hit by a car.

"The physical construction was one thing," said Poillucci. "(But) the exterior was quite the project."

Life inside the home

In the bedroom housing the bariatric lift machine, the walls are painted a soft purple color. The woman planning to move in picked out the color and chose the new pieces of furniture. Residents get to customize their rooms − a way to make the building seem like home.

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St. Pierre said the BAMSI team FaceTimed patients from Jordan's Furniture so residents could pick the pieces.

In the living room of the men's wing sits an old wooden desk that one resident brought from his home.

All residents moving in hail from nearby towns − from Cape Cod to Bridgewater to Taunton.

"We really took time so all the people who are going to live in this house get along with each other," St. Pierre said.

Challenges

Before they're allowed to build an ABI home, surveyors conduct a density, or concentration, review to ensure there aren't other ABI homes nearby, said BAMSI Vice President of Community Living Christine Lopez. That way, it helps the residents merge with the community instead of living in one area in an isolated environment.

St. Pierre said some communities can carry misconceptions of the ABI home. The facility could get labeled as a "halfway house."

"(Neighbors were) immediately putting labels and discriminatory language on the home, even before we unpacked a box," St. Pierre said.

With a long waitlist and rare openings, BAMSI battles misconceptions that can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, putting more obstacles in the way of building more ABI homes.

"You need a lot of houses to reach that 100-plus," said Jill Conlon, executive vice president of BAMSI Home.

BAMSI has also struggled to find enough nurses to fully staff the facility. The male residents are set to move in come January, but the women aren't expected to move in until March since there aren't enough staff for the women's wing.

Designing and building this specific type of facility provides unique challenges. It must be one story − requiring it to be wide and take up space.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Easton: Brockton's BAMSI builds home for people with brain injuries