New workforce housing to provide 35 units under co-housing model

BRATTLEBORO - A collaboration between three local organizations will transform Holton Home into workforce housing. M&S Development, Garden Path Elder Living, and the Brattleboro Retreat are working to reopen the former assisted living facility to serve traveling health care workers.
Holton Home will operate under a co-housing model. Each of the 35 units will include a private bedroom and bathroom. Tenants will share a common kitchen and dining area.
Common areas will be cleaned daily while an outside cleaning service will clean the individual bedrooms twice a month. M&S will provide property management and after-hours, on-call support. M&S Development holds a 10-year lease to retrofit and manage the building.
The Brattleboro Retreat signed a memorandum of understanding to prelease all 35 units for traveling nurses and doctors who need housing for a minimum of three months.
Garden Path closed Holton Home earlier this year. The decision was in response to a decrease in residents seeking congregate elder care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Retreat provides inpatient and outpatient mental health care for children, adolescents, and adults. Yet, a lack of clinical staff has inhibited the psychiatric hospital’s ability to return to its pre-pandemic staffing levels, which also limits the number of clients it can serve. Hiring additional traveling clinicians is part of the hospital’s effort to reach its pre-pandemic level of 100 inpatient beds by June 2023.
On December 21, Brattleboro’s Development Review Board approved a change of use for Holton Home to another specialized residential structure that supports the co-housing living model. The board also asked M&S to return later in the year to discuss how managing Holton Home is going and if any changes need to be made regarding operating the facility or parking.