With Vermont’s population aging, there’s a growing need for affordable senior housing. A nonprofit in Rutland is trying to address that by reusing existing community buildings.
Rutland’s historic Watkins School was built in 1897 and oozes charm with arched windows and a stately red brick façade.
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But the building had been vacant for years and local officials were talking about tearing it down.
That’s when the Housing Trust of Rutland County stepped in. Elizabeth Kulas, the nonprofit’s Executive Director, says her organization has renovated a number of historic structures like: downtown Rutland’s Tuttle Building, the Adams House in Fair Haven and the Stanislaus School and Convent in West Rutland.
She says they then turned those buildings into attractive and affordable housing.
“So these buildings are often the white elephants. They’re the buildings that are too expensive and too big to envision repurposing, and paying for it ... that’s our job,” she says. “We try to preserve the historic fabric of our communities and create needed housing with it.”
She says the cost to renovate the Watkins School and construct a new carriage house next door was just more than $4 million.
Kulas says they were able to complete the project thanks to funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as state and federal grants and tax credits.
She says all 14 of the new one bedroom senior apartments are already occupied.
