Is there room at the old Taunton Nursing Home for fields and veterans? Depends who you ask.

TAUNTON- Redevelopment of the former Taunton Nursing Home property on Norton Avenue is being explored, with some lobbying for athletic fields and playgrounds and others looking to add veteran housing.

But State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said the property could house both options.

“This is not about one proposal versus the other,” Pacheco said. “They (Madden Planning Group and Dream Collaborative) could put together a comprehensive plan that provides veterans housing and additional athletic facilities.”

The reuse of the nursing home property is being evaluated by the Madden Planning Group of Watertown and Dream Collaborative LLC of Boston under a $50,000 grant that Taunton received from the MassDevelopment Real Estate Technical Assistance Program.

Mayor Shaunna O’Connell said having veteran housing at the former nursing home would be “considered as part of a study that is being done to identify options for the use of that site.”

“A number of ideas have been proposed, and we look forward to the presentation of the study, which will help guide us in the appropriate next steps in the process,” she said.

Taunton Veterans Services Director Ally Rodriguez and O’Connell’s administration are unsure if the nursing home location “is a viable option for veterans housing.”

“We will certainly collaborate in exploring that possibility and continue to seek other options for our veterans as well,” Rodriquez said.

Veteran housing needed

Pacheco recently discussed the need for veteran housing with State Secretary of Veterans Services Jon Santiago at the former Taunton Nursing Home.

“He is more than willing to consider further discussions with municipal leaders about ways in which they could work together,” Pacheco said, adding that former Taunton Nursing Home “may be something that could be modified and used as a veterans’ home.”

“According to MassDevelopment, the building is very secure and has a very high structural integrity,” he added.

Pacheco said there is a significant need to build veterans homes in Taunton, southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.

“We are talking about affordable housing needs that is the Commonwealth’s number one problem in terms of our future economy,” he said. “When you look at veterans' housing, it is much more critical.”

Pacheco said veterans' housing could be created in Taunton and elsewhere in the state under a $200 million bond bill that state lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker approved in May 2021.

"There will be a 65% (federal) reimbursement for construction of these homes and a reimbursement of 75% to 80% for regular health care services that go into these homes by the government," he added. "It's federal money coming to bear in a significant way, and it will create health care jobs."

Rodriguez said veterans’ housing needs could be remedied by “repurposing abandoned properties and constructing 40B affordable housing homes.”

“Some ways we can remedy this deficit is by landlords accepting Housing Urban Development vouchers and Veterans Administrative Services Housing vouchers,” she said.

Rodriguez said it’s also vital to end the stigma that homeless veterans have “who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or are struggling with alcoholism.

“There is a plethora of reasons why veterans and others end up homeless,” she said.

Sports leagues want recreation fields

Pop Warner Football League, Taunton Girls Softball League, and Taunton West Little League administrators have asked city officials to create playing fields at the former nursing home, which has been closed since 2019.

West Little League president Tyler Doehler said he supports creating veterans’ housing but “does not know if the nursing home is the right place” to accommodate veterans’ housing.

“My dad and my grandfather are veterans,” he said. “I support looking at that site for veterans housing, but I don’t know if it’s the right place for them.”

Doehler said veteran housing needs medical services in their building, which should be “within walking distance to a public transportation station and shopping center."

“With the amount of vacant state and federal properties, there are plenty of places to build a veterans home,” he added.

Doehler said the former nursing home “is a teardown, and having it used as a veterans home would not give them the respect they deserve.

“They should get a state-of-the-art building,” he added.

Doehler said a recreation field should be created at the former nursing home property because more space is needed to accommodate the growing interest among youngsters to play baseball and softball in the leagues at their fields on Norton Avenue.

“We have to park all the way up on Norton Avenue,” he said. “We have limited access to our fields during the week because there are so many kids and teams. If we keep growing at this rate, it will be hard to expand our capacity at our current location.”

Doehler said the West Little League has approximately 350 to 400 players registered to play this season.

“We have 50 more kids that signed up this year,” he added.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Former Taunton Nursing Home might house veterans