Cathedral Square’s Bayview Crossing community in South Hero received a Welcome to the Neighborhood Award at Vermont Housing & Conservation Board’s 35th anniversary celebration earlier this month. The award was presented to Cathedral Square, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources (CIDER), and the Town of South Hero for “your extraordinary dedication over many years to develop housing in the Lake Champlain Islands."
Age Strong Vermont serves as a roadmap for state agencies and lawmakers, business owners, social service agencies, town and city planners, and the healthcare industry to build a coordinated and efficient system of services over the long-term, with the overarching goal of enhancing and securing the right for all Vermonters to age safely and happily, with dignity and respect.
Cathedral Square’s Elm Place in Milton received a Green Building Award last week at the eleventh annual Vermont’s Greenest Building Awards, hosted by the Vermont Green Building Network (VGBN). This award is given to projects demonstrating energy use intensity at least 50% below the regional average energy use for buildings of the same end use and incorporating other sustainability features.
Cathedral Square announced that they met their $1 million fundraising goal for Memory Care at Allen Brook, their Williston-based residence for very low-income Vermonters on Medicaid and the only truly affordable memory-care residence in the state. The capital campaign was created last October to pay off the remaining debt on the property, a need identified when the pandemic caused unprecedented increases to their operating budget. Now that the debt is paid off, Allen Brook will remain sustainable into the future.
Cathedral Square CEO Kim Fitzgerald is a top finalist for the Remarkable Women Award, part of a nationwide Nexstar Media initiative to honor the influence that women have had on public policy, social progress, and the quality of life. In Vermont, there are few issues bigger than the challenge in finding affordable housing, especially for seniors. For Kim Fitzgerald, helping older Vermonters is a part of who she is.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition (VHCC) Legislative Day presents an opportunity for housing and conservation partners to raise awareness about the importance of Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) investments and community results. Legislators need to hear from you—Vermonters doing the work on the ground—about ways VHCB investments are addressing some of Vermont’s most pressing issues, such as homelessness, water quality, rural economic development, and more.
Dr. Mark Levine, Aaron Ferenc, and Sarah Muyskens have been named to the Board of Directors for Cathedral Square. “We are thrilled to welcome these three highly accomplished Vermonters to our board,” says Cathedral Square CEO Kim Fitzgerald. “They each bring a unique perspective and area of expertise to our organization as we continue to address the critical need for equal access to quality, service-enriched, affordable homes for older adults and people with diverse needs in Vermont.”
Cathedral Square is proud to join with many of our housing partners from around Vermont to urge the state to increase its investment in affordable housing by $175 million during the 2023 legislative session. We recognize that safe, affordable housing is the foundation of health, individual and community well-being, and economic, racial, and social justice. We urge incoming lawmakers to prioritize funding for affordable housing so that all Vermonters can thrive.
Like virtually every other business and organization, we cycle through periods of being short-staffed due to employees who have retired or moved on and those who must quarantine at home for days due to having the virus. Fortunately, here at Cathedral Square we’ve had the support of friends, donors, board members and current staff members at all levels who have pitched in to help whenever and wherever there has been a need.
State and local officials, affordable housing advocates, and area residents gathered in South Hero Monday, Nov. 14, to celebrate the opening of Bayview Crossing, a new Cathedral Square community with 30 homes for older adults and offices for the local nonprofit C.I.D.E.R. (Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources). It is the first affordable housing to be built in Grand Isle County in 17 years.
