Two affordable housing developers broke ground Wednesday on 30 permanently affordable housing units on a long-vacant industrial site near the downtown of Rutland City.
The three-story, energy-efficient housing project known as Maplewood Commons includes six units designated for people with housing challenges and three accessible units. Residents will have access to green spaces, an outdoor play space, a patio and a community room.
Rutland City Mayor Mike Doenges said the 30 units, built by Cornerstone Housing Partners and Evernorth, are part of 220 permitted housing units now in the works toward his goal of 1,000 new units in the city by 2028.
Mary Cohen, executive director of the recently merged Cornerstone Housing Partners, said at the groundbreaking that the project might seem like a “drop in the bucket” but is an important step forward in addressing the city’s housing needs.
The project was expedited with help from the Rutland City Mayor’s Office to locate the project in a “neighborhood designated area.” That helped avoid some regulatory requirements of Act 250, a state law for land use and development review, Cohen said.
Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, said the agency helped the partners secure funds for the project because of the “clear vision” articulated by the city’s leadership and the community’s significant need for housing.
“We were really impressed by the location of this property and how it was going to improve the neighborhood by taking down the buildings that were there and replacing them with beautiful, high-quality housing that could serve the Rutland community,” Collins said in an interview.
A partnership with the Rutland Housing Authority will provide rental assistance through 10 housing vouchers to those exiting or at risk of homelessness, she said. That means “this property is going to help folks who need it the most,” Collins said.
The project has come to fruition through a variety of private and public state and federal funds, totaling $14.6 million.
Evernorth President Nancy Owens said at the event that the groundbreaking is an “important milestone” because it invests in strengthening a neighborhood near downtown Rutland. But, she said, the fate of funding for other affordable projects down the line is unknown as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Donald Trump works to dismantle some programs.
The federal department has faced staffing cuts and funding freezes, including the withholding of $60 million in affordable housing and community development contracts through the department in recent months, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
She noted the Maplewoods Commons project included $5.6 million of federal funding allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act State Fiscal Recovery Fund and National Housing Trust Funds. That money was administered through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
“Some of the threats that we’re seeing in Washington around the budget process” are “very tangible to the people and communities of Vermont,” Owens said. The development partners in Rutland and around the state will search to secure new financial resources to allay the potential loss of federal funds, she added.
Collins said at the groundbreaking event that there was a “little glimmer of good news coming out of D.C. this week.” The Vermont delegation’s advocacy to expand Low Income Housing Tax Credits has gained traction and is included in the current iteration of the budget reconciliation bill, she said.
These tax credits, which developers sell to private investors to obtain funding, “are the largest source of funding to create affordable rental housing,” Collins said in an interview. Federal Tax Credit Equity funding provided by Evernorth through private banks and administered through the Vermont Housing Finance Agency comprised $6.6 million, the bulk of funding for the Maplewoods Commons project.
Affordable housing projects are typically sourced through a patchwork of funds, Collins said. The loss of federal funding sources, including federal American Rescue Plan stimulus money the state budgeted toward housing during the Covid-19 pandemic, makes the financial landscape for affordable housing in Vermont uncertain, she said.
“If Vermont got an increase in tax credits, it means that we could have more resources to create more affordable housing,” Collins said in an interview. “At the same time, the federal government is slashing HUD’s budget, and there’s less state money for housing, and so I don’t really know what the impact will be.”
