Sisters of Providence President Kathleen Popko discusses a affordable elder housing project to the West Springfield Town Council
Photo credit: West Springfield Media
WEST SPRINGFIELD — During its April 22 meeting, the West Springfield Town Council approved a $400,000 Community Preservation Act fund allocation for Hillside Phase Three Affordable Housing.
The project was requested by the Sisters of Providence, who in 2018 received $750,000 in Community Preservation Act funding from West Springfield to help build 36 affordable housing units for senior citizens on its 27-acre campus on Riverdale Street.
The original proposed allocation for Phase 3 of the project was $1 million but Town Council member Jamie Smith explained after extensive meetings back and forth about the request, the budget subcommittee made a motion to decrease the original allocation request from $1 million to $400,000.
Sisters of Providence President Kathleen Popko was at the meeting to present and discuss the project.
The proposal includes 24 units of affordable elder housing and Popko discussed the development and transformation of the former Brightside for Families and Children site, in which this project will take place at 2112 Riverdale St.
CPC funds will be used to support the development of this 8,000-square-foot, newly constructed, affordable rental housing project, according to Popko.
The new building will be three stories of 24, one-bedroom, independent rental units and each unit will be designed to meet the state standards for elder housing.
Popko also explained, “The facility is designed to be service enriched and by that, I mean two aspects. One is that as individuals, the persons who are residents there will be able to apply to be part of the Pace program if they chose or are eligible or we will have service enrichment probably working with local agencies that will provide service as needed.”
Hillside Residence was originally completed in September 2019 and the target population was elders over 62 years of age and at risk of being put in a nursing home. They also had to meet eligibility criteria for the Pace program and housing standards for subsidized rent.
The first resident was Mercy Hospital’s Mercy Life Pace program, which is a program for the all-inclusive care of elders. It occupies the first floor of the building.
Popko explained that the original plan was to move right on to Phase 3 and build a second model that was broader and less so restrictive in terms of eligibility but, “the coronavirus pandemic happened, labor shortages, supply change issues and everything else happened in the period so it wasn’t until 2023 that we began to assess the development of that phase three project.”
Phase 3 will help add to this continuum of care which Popko said, “is a model that we have been working toward because we had this entire campus dedicated to the care of elders. We have support services for them, and we feel that this is an extraordinary project and will enhance and bring to, from my perspective and my age, the completion of the project for a range of services for elders.”
If a resident ages out or needs additional care, Popko said they may move on to the original Hillside Residence where there is more support.
Popko said, “We saw that growing demand and we wanted then, and we made a decision to transform the whole campus from care of children to care of elders.”
