Rutland City — The Marble City gained a 30 unit housing complex near the downtown, including six units for people transitioning out of homelessness. The multi-family housing will remain affordable in perpetuity, said Kathy Beyer, senior vice president of real estate at Evernorth, a co-developer and owner of the project.
“When we build new homes for all income levels, we know that we lift everyone’s boats,” Beyer said. “New housing is vital for the local economy, for employers trying to hire, and for neighborhoods to thrive.”
The other co-developer and owner, Cornerstone Housing Partners, and Evernorth broke ground on the property in May 2025, and finished the project within budget and on the planned timeline, said Cornerstone’s Chief Executive Officer Mary Cohen. The partners received $14.6 million in a mix of private and public funding to cover development costs.
At the groundbreaking last year, housing advocates voiced worries that federal changes would stymie affordable housing projects going forward. At the time, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had seen staffing cuts and funding freezes.
The Rutland project made it under the wire as the Office of Management and Budget proposed a rule that would change the review process for federal grants and could cause funding uncertainty for everything from housing development to rural hospitals to scientific research.
The HUD cuts put the planned 10 HUD vouchers for Maplewood Commons in jeopardy, but the funds came through, Cohen said. HUD vouchers provide housing assistance to low-income families, the elderly and people with disabilities.
Cohen said Vermont developers now have a better sense of what conditions and funding landscape they are working within.
There is a glimmer of hope nationally, she added. The federal housing bill — with several provisions that help increase affordable home ownership and construction — passed Congress with bipartisan support in June and became law despite President Donald Trump not signing it.
There is also action on the local level to help streamline housing development going forward. Mayor Tom Donahue said that Rutland was the first municipality in Vermont to submit a land use exemption application for downtown centers through Act 181. This legislation received a lot of attention for its impact on rural conservation areas this past legislative session.
If Rutland City gets the greenlight, it will mean that all housing, commercial and industrial development will go through local review and avoid the arduous Act 250 state land use review process, saving developers time and money for projects, Donahue said. He hopes that Rutland will be the first to receive this exemption.
Gus Seelig, executive director of Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, said it will be harder to build housing without federal funding coming to the state as it once was, including American Rescue Plan Act dollars that funded public health and economic recovery initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board helped dedicate $4 million in ARPA funding to Maplewood Commons and has dedicated around $30 million to around 500 units in Rutland, Seelig said. One asset of the project is that large buildings in dense neighborhoods near downtowns help further the state’s environmental goals.
“The more we can build where there’s infrastructure, the more we can continue to enjoy the mountains that surround this community,” said Seelig.
Cornerstone also intends to secure funding next week for another project called East Creek Commons that includes a total of 36 units in the Rutland area, said Cohen. Another 31-unit property owned by Cornerstone called the Arlington Village Center is slated for rehabilitation work. Cornerstone also plans to revamp two projects in Brandon and Bennington as well, she said.
One of the reasons Cornerstone Housing Partners has several projects in the pipeline currently is due to an influx of federal funds to the state several years ago, Cohen said.
While working with less funding support, Cornerstone is zeroing in on rehabilitation of existing affordable housing properties as well, Cohen said.
“It’s really important to reinvest in what we currently have,” Cohen said. “The focus has been really on new units over the last five years. Preservation projects are now coming to the forefront.”
Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly described President Donald Trump’s response to the federal housing bill.
