The Connecticut Department of Housing and the city of Waterbury are teaming up on a first-of-its-kind affordable housing development aimed at attracting and retaining healthcare workers.
The complex will include 47 affordable units in four buildings on the site of the former Saint Mary’s Grammar School property in Waterbury that the city acquired in 2023. The buildings have, for the most part, stood vacant for 10 years.
The site is located across the street from Saint Mary’s Hospital, a couple miles from Waterbury Hospital and within walking distance of downtown, public transportation, restaurants and shopping, said the city’s mayor, Paul Pernerewski.
“If we want to attract and retain healthcare professionals in our community, we need to make sure they have access to quality housing close to where they work, and this is what makes this project particularly significant,” Pernerewski said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
The project is estimated to cost between $14 million and $15 million. It will be funded in part through a 2022 measure authorizing the state borrow up to $20 million for the development of housing for healthcare workers. The Waterbury project is the first to tap that funding.
Connecticut will provide roughly $11.6 million in funding for the project, according to Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno. That includes $5.6 million from the healthcare housing initiative, $4.6 million in flexible housing funds and $1.5 million in loans that will need to be repaid. Ives Bank is providing an additional $2.2 million.
Connecticut officials are also in early-stage discussions with two other hospitals about opportunities for affordable housing development, Mosquera-Bruno said.
Units in the Waterbury development are intended for middle-income families earning between $40,000 and $80,000 annually, Mosquera-Bruno said. They’ll include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with rents ranging from $1,000 to $1,500.
Pernerewski called the project “a major commitment to housing for healthcare workers.”
But groups representing healthcare workers said that while affordable housing is an “important part” of supporting this workforce, the need for it is also a sign that wages are insufficient.
“Essential healthcare workers should not have to rely on affordable housing programs simply to afford to live where they work,” representatives with SEIU 1199NE, a union representing healthcare and service workers across Connecticut, Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
A handful of SEIU 1199NE union members were present at Tuesday’s press conference in Waterbury, standing behind the speakers.
Hospital lobbyists in Connecticut have for years been seeking the state’s support in expanding the healthcare workforce. Staffing shortages in the industry were exacerbated during the pandemic, but they continue to pose a challenge years later.
Connecticut needs thousands of new registered nurses a year to make up for retirements — without factoring in nurses who leave the profession for other reasons, like burn out. The annual number of graduates from the state’s nursing programs don’t meet that need.
Joe Gramando, the developer behind the Waterbury housing development, said it’s currently accepting applications for renters. Construction will start after Labor Day and will take between 12 and 18 months to complete, he said.
Gramando said he plans to apply for state funds to support the construction of another 50-unit development for healthcare workers in the lot adjacent to the current project site.
