Vinton Hall involves the new construction of eight single-room occupancy housing units in a green, energy-efficient beautiful building.  It will provide housing for eight formerly homeless individuals with incomes at or below fifty percent of area median income. Residents will benefit from extensive services and activities including financial planning, transportation, participation on the residents’ council, and the opportunity to participate on the sponsor’s board of directors.  The facility will allow for independent living within walking access to counseling, legal assistance, medical attention, wholesome recreational activities, a dining facility, and educational and vocational opportunities. 

    The Brothers of Christian Instruction donated the land for Vinton Hall through a thirty-year ground lease.  Funding for the project is being provided by  Kennebunk Savings Bank, The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Maine Realtors Foundation, and MaineHousing.

    A ground-breaking ceremony for Vinton Hall took place on October 17, 2007.  The ceremony

was sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.  Representatives from Kennebunk

Savings Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the York County Shelter Programs’

Board of Directors, area legislators, and members of the staff and residents were invited to the

ground-breaking ceremony.

Vinton Hall is designed to take advantage of passive solar heating in the winter and shaded cooling in the summer.  Photo voltaic solar collectors will be utilized for the partial generation of electricity and a separate vacuum tube solar collector system is planned for supplementing the domestic hot water system.

A state-of-the-art wood-burning furnace that exceeds EPA standards and has low impact and near-zero emissions, will

be utilized as a heat source.

An architectural drawing of Vinton Hall was on display at the ground-breaking ceremony on October 17, 2007.  Accommodations for formerly homeless men who have the opportunity to live in the new building will be top-notch. Each resident will have their own room and private bathroom.  The building is set in a field surrounded by woods and an orchard.  It will be an architectural showpiece with its Shaker style and two-story open atrium.

Discussing plans for the new Vinton Hall are from left:  engineer Wes Perry, architect David Joy, York County Shelter Programs’ Deputy Director Wes Phinney, and York County Shelter Programs’ Housing Development  Director David Beseda.

From left:  State Senator Jon Courtney, Joanne Sullivan, Assistant Vice-President from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston;  State Representative Jim Campbell, and William Darling, Vice-President of Kennebunk Savings Bank.

Russell King and Ron Woodward

William Darling, Vice-President of the Kennebunk Savings Bank

Joe Hanslip, Vice-President of the York County Shelter Programs’ Board of Directors (on left) and Wes Phinney, the Deputy Director of the York County Shelter Programs.

From left:  Leslie Morrill, Joanne Sullivan, William Darling, Joe Hanslip, David Joy, Jon Courtney, Jim Campbell, and Brother David Denicourt.

Joanne Sullivan, Assistant Vice President of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.

Joe Hanslip, Vice President of the York County Shelter Programs’ Board of Directors (on left) speaks with Brother David Denicourt, the  Superior of the Brothers of Christian Instruction and a member of the York County Shelter Programs’ Board of Directors.

Individuals who met on a weekly basis to discuss the

progress of the construction of Vinton Hall included back from left:  Lou Tremell from Maine State Housing; Alton “Swede” Wedberg from United States Department of Agriculture; Darren Shiers from Great Fall Builders. Seated from left: architect  Jo-Ann Cavanaugh ; architect David Joy; and Scott Emery from USDA Rural Development.  Missing from the photo is York County Shelter Programs’ Housing Development Director David Beseda.