By JASON KOLNOS, Staff Writer

HARWICH - Prospective tenants of a planned affordable housing project on Sisson Road will be the first on Cape Cod who will also have access to day-care services in the same place, according to regional housing experts.

Construction began yesterday on the 13-apartment project, and is scheduled to open next spring. The apartments are being built under the state's affordable housing law, Chapter 40B. That law requires developers to guarantee 25 percent of the homes will be considered affordable when compared with local market rates. In return, developers get breaks with some local zoning bylaws.

Housing officials are particularly proud of the availability of day care for future renters of these apartments.

" This is another way we can help the younger people who are fleeing the Cape stay here," said Bob Murray, president of the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless (HECH), the nonprofit developer.

At $3 million, this is the most ambitious project in the Harwich group's decade of work.

Five of the apartments and the day-care center will emerge from the conversion of a 6,000-square-foot colonial-stylehome that used to be a bed and breakfast. Construction crews will then build two, 3,000-square-foot buildings behind that building to account for the eight other one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The rentals will likely range from $500 to $700, depending on income levels and the number of bedrooms, although those figures haven't been finalized, Murray said.

HECH child center director Abigail Newberry said the facility will accommodate 26 children, including some newborns.

"We're really excited for this, it's been a long-time coming," said Newberry, whose group has been looking for a permanent home instead of the temporary location inside Brewster's Stony Brook Elementary School.

Murray praised the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, which committed $1.67 million to help finance the project.

Included in that state group's financing is $300,000 from Home Funders, a one-year-old program aimed at helping developers provide more of their units for lower-income families.

A Home Funders loan will enable HECH to make four of its units available for people making 30 percent of median income, which on Cape Cod is $18,500 per year for a family of four.

"We want to help organizations like HECH secure stable housing for people with much lower incomes - a market that is terribly underserved," said partnership spokesman Ruston Lodi.

Murray said professionals with middle-class incomes are part of another demographic often overlooked because theystill can't afford Cape housing.

Three of Sisson Road's units will be made available to those who make a combined 80 percent to 120 percent of the median income, or roughly $50,000 to $65,000 annually.

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