A Rutland-based housing nonprofit wants to buy a former senior care facility in the city to create new affordable housing along with transitional housing for families in crisis.
Cornerstone Housing Partners plans to convert the former Loretto Home, a level III residential care facility that closed in 2023, into both permanent and temporary housing units.
According to CEO Mary Cohen, the group has a purchase option with Vermont Catholic Charities, which owns the property.
“We are in the business of creating affordable apartments, and I see that as a beautiful place to create homes for people,” Cohen explained. “There is an annex on the building that I think is really set up well for very minimal rehab to create temporary housing for those experiencing homelessness.”
To create the transitional housing, Cohen said Cornerstone would repurpose the annex portion of the property into 14 to 16 units with shared kitchens and bathrooms.
Families would be vetted, Cohen said, and the facility would prioritize those determined to be most in need.
The nonprofit BROC Community Action would also provide families with wraparound social services, which Cohen said is vital to helping people secure permanent housing.
“A lot of times, people don't know how to rent an apartment or how to be a good tenant, or, you know, what the expectations are,” she said. “So having transitional housing with this kind of stability period, is so much better to the success of their tenancy.”
Buying the 20,000-square-foot building and renovating the annex would cost between $3.8 and $4 million, Cohen said.
A more costly, long-term plan involves developing permanent affordable apartments in the main four-story building.
Some neighbors have expressed concerns at public meetings about Cornerstone's plans to use the space as a homeless shelter.
Housing solutions are much-needed for struggling Rutland families, Cohen said.
“Why not take care of the homeless people in your neighborhood responsibly, you know, and have a safe, respectable place for them to go?” she said.
Under current zoning, the property is located in a park district, which doesn't allow for the development of multi-family housing, said Ed Bove, Rutland City’s planning director. The former Loretto Home had been grandfathered in as a pre-existing nonconforming use, Bove said, but because it's been vacant for two years, that status has been lost.
Some residents have also raised issues with changing zoning in that district to mixed residential use, he said. The zoning update aims to comply with state housing standards and facilitate development, Bove said.
According to state statute, an emergency shelter could be developed on the Loretto Home property whether the zoning changes are made or not.
Addressing the zoning issue has been delayed in the city due to a lack of a quorum on the local planning commission. Once more members are seated on that commission, Bove said public hearings can resume.
