HOLYOKE — The federal government has awarded $130 million in conditional funding for the construction of the new Holyoke Soldiers’ Home facility.
In an announcement earlier this week, the state’s Department of Veterans’ Services said it received the funding through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ State Veterans Home Construction Grant Program. The state is preparing to build a new Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke after a COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 killed 84 veteran residents of the facility, where residents faced cramped quarters made worse by understaffing.
“We are grateful to the U.S. VA for this offer, and for the ongoing support of the Massachusetts Legislature, whose passage of the bond bill allowed for this application,” the Department of Veterans’ Services statement reads.
In May, Gov. Charlie Baker signed the $400 million spending bill to replace the facility, which was built in 1952. The new building is expected to have 235 beds in mostly private rooms, an adult day health center and more space.
State officials rushed to apply for the federal funding by an April deadline. The funding is contingent on meeting additional federal requirements.
“The commonwealth will request additional funding in future years for this project,” the Department of Veterans’ Services said in its statement.
The families of veterans who died or were infected during the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 recently reached a $56 million settlement with the state, which they alleged in a lawsuit had failed in its obligation to take care of the veterans who lived there.
Employees have also filed a class-action lawsuit against several of the facility’s former leaders, alleging that during the outbreak they had been forced to work in “inhumane conditions” as they cared for sick and dying veterans, without adequate protection or infection-control protocols.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.