📰 [Herald] 'Hamesbest' project breaks ground
- Joe Grabowski
- Aug 28
- 5 min read
Hamesbest project breaks ground
Leaders Still Seek $200K For Specialty Housing Project
herald-hamesbest-project-breaks-groundAUGUST 21, 2025
Article shared with permission of The Herald:
Fundraising continues for a new housing project on Water Street in Randolph Center that is expected to provide a home for three individuals with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) once complete in May 2026.
The housing project is a direct outcome of Act 186, Vermont legislation passed in 2022 that mandated a review of housing for individuals with IDD and led to pilot planning grants for new housing models across the state.
Work is already underway on the $2-million Randolph Center project that renovates a single-family property, built in the 1850s and dubbed “Hamesbest” by the family who donated it. The name is taken from the Scottish proverb “East, west, home is best.”
The historic property includes a red brick home, garage with space above for an apartment, and red barn. Paths among lilac bushes and apple trees lend to the pastoral feel of the place.
Developers and supporters, including friends and clients of Upper Valley Services, the lead on the project, gathered last Thursday for a ceremonial groundbreaking following remarks in Judd Hall at Vermont State University. The home is a short walk from campus. On hand were family members of the late Gertrude and Philip Hodgdon, who moved into the brick house in 1944 and raised their family there while teaching at what was then Vermont School of Agriculture. Philip Hodgdon in particular loved the Scottish saying about home.
The Hodgdons’ daughter, Ruth, and her husband, Norm Buchanan, gave the home to Upper Valley Services to ensure another housing option for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Buchanans’ adult daughter has a developmental disability.
“Like many other parents in the state, they were looking for options for people like their daughter…and it began a long journey to get to where we are today,” said Brice Blaisdell, housing manager with UVS, during opening remarks.
UVS Executive Director Gloria Quinn spoke further of the need for housing for community members with such disabilities. “People with intellectual and developmental disabilities deserve opportunities to live safely in communities of their choice, where they feel a sense of belonging, have the opportunities to work, have fun, grow relationships, grow their lives in just the way that they want,” Quinn said.
State officials and supporters of Act 186 were also in attendance, including Jill Bowen, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living; state Rep. Theresa Wood; Alex Farrell, commissioner of the state Department of Housing & Community Development; and Jenny Hyslop, housing director for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board.
Wood, who chairs the House Human Services Committee, called attention to the current political climate and the need for constituents to speak up about the issues that matter to them.
“While this is a time to celebrate, there’s a lot going on in our state and in our country, and a lot of things need your attention. They need to hear you as staff, you as parents, you as advocates, you as individuals with disabilities, yourselves to pay attention. We have a federal government right now who wants to criminalize disability. That’s real.”
Earlier in the week, Blaisdell discussed how UVS works to support about 200 clients in the area with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He said that the vast majority of Vermonters with IDD don’t live with family members but can’t live independently. Nearly 70% of these folks have what’s called a “shared living” arrangement.
“That’s when someone contracts with the agency and they open their home. So someone lives in your home, has their own space, their own bedroom. They’re part of the family in most cases.” Shared living really kicked off with the 1993 closure of the Brandon Training School, a state home for people with IDD, he said.
“The institution was closed, and actually a lot of the former employees became the first shared-living providers. They had connected with the individuals” living there.
“If a shared-living provider no longer wants to do that job anymore, we have someone almost instantly homeless. And also it’s one choice, it’s one option. But what the state found was that there isn’t a lot of choice in housing for folks with IDD.”
Standing outside the Hodgdons’ home, Blaisdell noted a personal connection: the couple taught in VTC’s ag program back when Blaisdell’s grandfather was a student. “I have [my grandfather’s] yearbook from 1935 when he was a student. And I have pictures of Philip and Gertrude.”
Blaisdell said the project team will do its best to preserve the character of Hamesbest while bringing the place up to code and making it safe and practical for UVS clients to call home. “We want to keep the history of this place very much alive. We’re going to keep the lilacs,” he said, calling attention to the many bushes planted by Philip Hodgdon for friends and neighbors to enjoy.
“We want this to be a place that’s very much part of the community, so we envision that being the case again. We want those lilacs blooming and we want people coming to visit.”
Hamesbest is made possible through a partnership between UVS and Downstreet Housing and Development. Together, with another grant made possible with Act 186, they are also working on a multi-unit building in Waterbury. Eighty percent of the Hamesbest project budget is funded through the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, which provides grant funding to affordable housing projects throughout the state. UVS also received funds, a $100,000 forgivable loan, from the Vermont Housing Improvement Program.
UVS seeks additional donations of $200,000 to support the project.
“In this day and age, with tariffs and all the different things that are going on right now, the bids came back higher than our funding, so we do have a funding gap,” said Blaisdell, explaining Upper Valley Service’s capital campaign that will take the project over the finish line.
Funds raised will cover the costs of nice-to-have items that were taken out of the budget, such as a standby generator. Additional money raised also will help cover the cost of assistive technologies— smart appliances, tablets for secure communication and to support things like telehealth meetings and medication reminders—as well as furniture for the home.
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For more information about the Hamesbest project, please visit https://uvs-vt.org/housing.
To support this project, please visit https://uvs-vt.org/giving.