Ashley Andyshak Hayes
Frederick News-Post

(2/21) Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved a request by Homes for America Inc., that the town apply for state grant funds on the organization's behalf for a proposed senior housing project in Emmitsburg.

The town will apply for up to $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for the project, which would transform part of the Provincial House on the Daughters of Charity campus into affordable senior housing.

Nancy Rase, president of Homes for America, an Annapolis-based management company that is helping develop the project, said other towns and counties have applied for these funds on its behalf in the past. She said a similar move by Emmitsburg would be "extremely helpful to the financial viability of the project."

The Provincial House currently houses St. Vincent Care Center, St. Catherine Nursing Center and the Villa St. Michael independent and assisted living center, but about 150,000 square feet of the building is unused.

The charity could develop up to 50 housing units in the building, but the project site plan has not yet been submitted to the town.

Homes for America will prepare all the grant paperwork and submit it to town staff and commissioners for review and approval before it is submitted to the state, Rase said. The next grant application round will likely be open in May or June, she said.

Mayor Jim Hoover called the request "a win-win" and said the town has used its municipal power in similar situations on behalf of Mount St. Mary's University and the Emmitsburg Volunteer Ambulance Co.

"I can't find a negative in what's in here right now," Hoover said of the request.

Block grants are awarded on a per-project basis, so this request would not hinder approval of any future grant applications from the town, Hoover said.