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Developer moves to preserve affordable senior housing in Morrisville

A photo of a curving sidewalk with a bench along it, in front of a large tan building.
Carly Berlin
/
Vermont Public and VTDigger
Copley Terrace, a subsidized senior apartment complex in Morrisville, on Oct. 19, 2023.

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

Nonprofit developer Evernorth is in the process of acquiring a subsidized senior apartment complex in Morrisville, with the intent to preserve the building’s more than three dozen affordable units in perpetuity. The move follows Copley Health Systems’ effort to convert several of the apartments into employee housing last year.

“Our plan is to continue to operate it as very high quality, affordable senior housing that’s been there for 40 years,” said Kathy Beyer, Evernoth’s senior vice president of real estate development. “It’ll be a resource to the community forever.”

The pending sale comes after a period of uncertainty for Copley Terrace’s future. The building is owned by the Lamoille Area Housing Corporation, a subsidiary of Copley Health Systems, Inc., which manages the apartments and also oversees neighboring Copley Hospital. Last year, Copley leadership sought to convert several of the apartments at the Terrace into accommodations for short-term or traveling hospital staff, in an effort to alleviate the hospital’s workforce shortage.

While Copley leadership promised the Terrace’s low-income, elderly residents that it wouldn’t kick them out — and would simply wait for apartments to become vacant — many residents still worried the writing was on the wall.

The news that Evernorth, which is among Vermont’s primary developers of publicly subsidized affordable housing, would be buying the building has brought a degree of relief, residents said Friday.

“I really feel that I am more comfortable that they are going to buy it from Copley,” said Melba Ferland, 68, who has lived at the Terrace for nearly three years. “I feel like we have some kind of hope, in that we’re not going to sit on pins and needles all the time going, ‘Well, is this the year that Copley’s going to pull the rug out from under us?’”

Copley Health Systems did not respond to multiple interview requests on Friday.

Copley Terrace’s 38 apartments are what housing wonks sometimes call “deeply affordable.” Tenants pay no more than a third of their monthly income on rent. The majority of the units are set aside for elderly people — two are open to younger people with disabilities — and many tenants get by on social security payments. Last year, one tenant reported that her monthly rent was $352.

The apartment complex was built with funding from a U.S. Housing and Urban Development program that requires that the building serve “very low-income elderly persons for 40 years.” Copley leadership’s consideration to convert some of the apartments into employee housing came in anticipation of hitting that 40-year mark in 2023.

Evernorth intends to keep all 38 units as affordable housing, and will retain rents capped at a third of residents’ incomes, Beyer said. And because it has accepted funding from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to support the sale, Beyer said, Evernorth will be signing perpetual affordability covenants meant to keep the apartments affordable permanently.

VHCB awarded $1,850,000 to Evernorth for the sale in October. Beyer declined to provide the total acquisition cost. Evernorth anticipates closing on the building within the next three months, she said.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.

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Carly covers housing and infrastructure for Vermont Public and VTDigger and is a corps member with the national journalism nonprofit Report for America.
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