Reading, VT – This is the story about the complexities of housing in the Upper Valley and how a community came together to help a young family make their new home in Reading a reality. 

Harlei and Melvin Pierce live in Reading with their three children: Jupiter, Astraea, and Astrophel, ranging in age from 3 to 13. Melvin is a Journeyman plumbing and heating tech who is working on his Master’s license. Harlei is from Woodstock where her family has lived since the late 1800s. 

The Pierces have experienced degrees of housing insecurity over the years. When Harlei was pregnant with her oldest child, they lost their home in Woodstock during Tropical Storm Irene. They relocated to Windsor before they were eventually able to move back to Woodstock. Melvin was working full-time and Harlei was working part-time and also attending school to become a hospice nurse. 

However, their plans took another unexpected turn. When their daughter, Astraea, was a few months old, they noticed that she wasn’t hitting developmental milestones. Suddenly the family’s schedule was filled with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech, and neurology appointments. Harlei had to stop working and attending school to keep up with all the appointments – sometimes as many as 10 appointments in a week. 

The doctors eventually diagnosed Astraea with a genetic disorder that affects the way the synapses in the brain tell her body what to do. She is unable to talk, walk, or sit up by herself. As Astraea grew older, their 2-bedroom mobile home in Woodstock quickly became too small for Astraea’s special chair and other equipment as well as the growing family.

Making a Home Warm

After taking a homeownership course and spending years searching for an affordable home, the Pierces finally found a house that they could afford in Reading in 2024. The 1900’s house needed work, but it had a flat yard and a bathroom and bedroom on the first floor for Astraea – and it was affordable. 

“It’s hard to find a house for sale in Reading. One just came up for sale around $600,000. Ours was around $220,000, which was the cheapest we could find for the most square feet. We received a downpayment assistance grant of $20,000 – we couldn’t have bought a home otherwise. Our situation makes it really, really tough”, Harlei says of the homebuying process and of relying on one earner so she can take care of the children, especially Astraea. The down payment grant was provided by Windham and Windsor Housing Trust. 

They purchased replacement doors and home goods at affordable prices, including a chandelier for $10 from the COVER Store. Their family helped with the flooring and painting. 

They received help from The Hub, which is a nonprofit that provides a safety net to residents of Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock. The Hub’s Tish Lewis connected them with resources to help with electricity and heating costs and also dropped off meals for the family. Tish noticed that their house was cold, drafty, and expensive to heat and referred the Pierces to the Reading Energy Committee. 

Bill Neukomm, a member of the Energy Committee who also previously served for five years as COVER’s Executive Director, performed a site visit. Neukomm noted that Reading is a small town with a rapidly aging population. According to Neukomm, “the challenge for younger and new-to-town families is that there are no homes to purchase affordably. The Pierces were in luck that they were able to purchase their home – they just happened to find a home that was on the market, and it was affordable for them because it needed a lot of work.”  

Making a Home Safe and Accessible

As the Reading Energy Committee prepared to weatherize the Pierces’ home to make it warmer and less expensive to heat, Astraea suffered a new medical episode. The left side of Astraea’s body had seized up, and doctors found a massive brain tumor the size of a tennis ball. She was ultimately diagnosed with a rare childhood brain cancer called CNS neuroblastoma FoxR2 activated. The Pierces’ life became a blur of medical appointments to remove as much of the tumor as possible and then radiation. 

Although Astraea uses a powered chair to move around inside, she needed a ramp to safely go in and out of her home. Additionally, her rolling commode/shower chair on wheels didn’t fit in the bathtub. Each time she needed to shower, Melvin had to lift her chair into the bathtub and then lift Astraea into the tub and onto the chair – a difficult feat as his daughter grew older. 

Harlei contacted COVER to see if they could build an accessibility ramp and also make their bathroom safer. When COVER came out to assess their home, they said “Yes, we’ll figure out a way to get you the shower you need and build both ramps”. While Astraea was in and out of the hospital due to health complications and chemotherapy, COVER continued with the projects, so that Astraea could be safer in her home. 

With a smile, Harlei shared: “I’m very happy to have made that connection with COVER. Bill [Neukomm] has also signed up to volunteer his time and some of the other people’s time that he knows to help us with the ramps because it’s going to take a lot of people to get this project done quickly.” 

By the end of the summer, COVER and its volunteers had built an accessibility ramp in the front entrance of the home. They also replaced the bathtub with a walk-in/roll-in shower. They repaired rotted decking and installed a ramp by Astraea’s bedroom as a second means of egress. Melvin helped with the plumbing work and Harlei made lunch for the volunteers when she could, in between appointments at the hospital with her daughter. 

The Impact

Harlei is 5’1’’ and Astraea is over 4 feet tall. Carrying her daughter up and down stairs is dangerous. Her body mechanics are also changing: “Astrea’s left side is still not matching her right side post-surgery, and her left arm sometimes hangs and can get tangled on things.” Harlei says. 

The accessibility ramps provide Astraea with a safe way to go in and out of the house – and the means to be more independent. For her parents, it means relief in knowing that daily life at home can be just a little bit easier. And knowing that if Astraea needs urgent medical care, they can quickly and safely move her to a vehicle – when every second counts.  

COVER’s Home Repair Director, John Heath, says, “At COVER, we often work with families that are in crisis. We can do our part to relieve some of their stress by completing urgent repairs. This way people don’t have to worry about leaky roofs or unsafe stairs or other deteriorating housing conditions. We hope that the new accessible shower and ramp will accomplish the same for the Pierces when Astraea comes home.” 

This is a story about a bathroom, ramps and other repairs. It is also the story of a group of neighbors coming together to help a new family in town. In addition to helping make the young family’s daily realities easier, support from The Hub, the Reading Energy Committee, and COVER helped make the Pierces’ house a home that is safe and warm. 

Looking to the Future

Harlei says, “Ours is a really long story, and it just keeps changing. It’s a really crappy situation for anyone to be in; it’s just terrible. Astrea has another four rounds of chemo, and I don’t know what the future will look like. But the one thing that’s been the highlight has been our community – they really stepped up in so many ways.” 

Harlei is part of The Family Place’s Advisory Committee in Norwich, and they’ve also been supporting the family. SEVCA, the community action agency located in Springfield, will insulate the family’s attic to improve the home’s energy efficiency even more. The Pierces are working with Mobility Works in Williston to trade in their current minivan for an AWD mobility van. 

Harlei hopes that perhaps next fall she can start working again, maybe even at her daughter’s school. 

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A note about COVER’s services: While the majority of households COVER serves are older adults or adults living with mobility limitations, COVER assists families too. In 2024, for instance, 15% of the 74 households COVER assisted were families with children.  Additionally, COVER serves an area that is up to 45 minutes from White River Junction. In 2023 and 2024, COVER completed nine repair projects in the greater Woodstock and Springfield areas (which includes Reading, Windsor, Springfield, and Weathersfield). In 2025 to date, COVER has completed six repairs in the area and a handful more planned.