The Greek Revival building standing tall on Hamilton Street has been a sanctuary since it opened 155 years ago.
More recently, the Vassar-Warner Home was where Board of Trustees President Richard Schuster’s mother, Dorothy, its longest senior resident, lived for 19 years.
Even after the senior living facility closed due to financial woes in 2024, forcing Schuster and all the other residents to move elsewhere, a small group remained determined to bring the great house back to life.
After almost two years, the home is in the midst of a resurgence, with plans to become Dutchess County’s only nonprofit independent senior living residence, fueled by private investments.
Richard Schuster and Executive Director Ericka Von Salews have poured their time and energy into Vassar-Warner’s revival, but this endeavor is not a two-person job.
A Vassar-Warner “family,” as Von Salews called it, has been built during the process.
From former staff to local businesses, along with friends and family of former residents and mid-Hudson Valley residents, the community showed up, donating their time and talent, when Von Salews and Schuster needed it most.
The two vowed Vassar-Warner would serve area residents like it once had, no matter how challenging the task may be.
Despite all the hurdles, their hard work reflects “a promise kept.” The phrase has become this treasured and historic home’s slogan, coined by Alice Houghton, a participant of its Home for the Day program.
Friends of the home pave the way for Vassar-Warner’s reopening
In the summer of 2024, Vassar-Warner’s previous board of trustees filed plans with the New York State Department of Health to close, plagued by rising costs, low occupancy and Medicaid reimbursement challenges, as seen across New York’s senior care industry.
Adding to the home’s unique challenges was its heavy reliance on the Vassar-Warner Home Foundation’s endowment to fund the gap between the home’s expenses and income, which had exhausted the principal balance for over 20 years.
Now, several investors, or “friends of the home,” as Schuster said, who were not named by Schuster or Von Salews, came together to put over half a million dollars into the home, at below-market rate.
When Schuster came aboard the Vassar-Warner team in 2024, Von Salews said he “saw where the issues lie and wanted to change that.”
Before the private investments came in, the home was able to save money through mindful spending, cutting back everywhere they could, and doing things like caulking the windows to save on heating, with their “old oil steam boiler” costing a great deal to fuel, Schuster said.
The home has also received money donated to specific things along the way, and Von Salews is working on several grant opportunities, too.
Moving forward, even though Vassar-Warner is a nonprofit, having residents and a steady income will help.
They’ve developed a “sustainable” plan, Schuster noted, that allows them to remain financially stable without being at full capacity.
Also, plans to rewrite The Vassar-Warner Home Board of Trustees bylaws to better position the home financially “are a work in progress,” Schuster said, but the process has begun, with an ongoing open forum for updates with the board.
The new board of trustees currently has eight members, all from the Hudson Valley, and several of whom are relatives of Vassar-Warner Home residents, according to the home’s website.
Vassar-Warner Home for the Day is sticking around
The home’s social model adult day care program, opened in July 2025, is staying around when the home reopens as an independent senior living facility.
Von Salews highlighted a new connection with Dutchess County’s Office for the Aging in the works, which will “help tremendously,” she said.
According to Dutchess County, Vassar-Warner responded to the OFA’s most recent RFQ to serve as a Social Adult Day Care provider.
The home is now one of three providers in the county, and those going to one of the county’s SADC providers, including Vassar-Warner, may be able to get cost assistance from the OFA, based on the monthly income of the older adult.
If the older adult is considered low-income, OFA can pay the entire fee, or if their income is 150% of the poverty level or above, there may be an opportunity for cost share for the older adult.
Dutchess County OFA Director Todd Tancredi said in a statement that the office is “pleased to begin collaborating with Vassar-Warner Home.”
“SADC offers caregivers the respite they need with the knowledge of knowing their loved one is being cared for,” Tancredi continued.
To learn how the county’s OFA may be able to assist with caregiver relief or older adult social care, contact the OFA at 845-486-2555.
Fundraising events, getting people into the historic Vassar-Warner Home
To get the word out about who Vassar-Warner is today, Vassar-Warner has been holding fundraiser events, or “friend-raisers,” as Von Salews called them.
From a spooky pre-Halloween 2025 talk on Dutchess County murders, led by a staff member of the City of Poughkeepsie library, to an antiques appraisal day and a comedy night, or mahjong classes coming in May, Vassar-Warner is using these as opportunities to get reacquainted with the community.
These “friend-raisers” only bring in a small amount, but the ultimate goal has been to have people see the home. Schuster and Von Salews plan to continue these and host larger community events in the future.
But the home is always looking for more volunteers to help, and there’s an opportunity for students to engage in unpaid internships providing communications support. Interested individuals can contact Vassar-Warner at 845-454-3754 or send an email through their website: vassarwarner.org/visit-contact-us/.
“Any level of service is helpful,” Schuster said.
To stay connected with Vassar-Warner, check out their Facebook, @Vassar-Warner Home, and their Instagram, @vassarwarnerhome.
How much is it to become a resident at the revived Vassar-Warner Home?
As an independent senior living facility, the Vassar-Warner Home will not be taking Medicaid, and thus will not be able to use the insurance to subsidize its all-inclusive rate of $5,800 per month.
According to Executive Director of the Empire State Association of Assisted Living Lisa Newcomb, independent senior living is not regulated like assisted living. Assisted living facilities in New York have only recently been required to submit resident pricing information to the New York State Health Department. This will eventually lead to the creation of a public, centralized hub to find assisted living facility rates.
Thus, for independent senior living facilities, there is no consolidated or unified place to acquire resident rates, according to Newcomb.
According to the Poughkeepsie Journal’s research, here is the pricing for three other local senior independent living facilities, as posted on their websites, at the time of publication:
What’s different from then to now?
The independent senior living facility is geared toward older adults, 55 and older, looking to live a more maintenance-free lifestyle, taking advantage of the home’s amenities like their own room, laundry services, housekeeping services, three meals a day as well as cultural and physical activities to encourage connections and well-being.
However, older adults who would like to live at Vassar-Warner but need extra care are welcome to contract home health care. Von Salews said they have a list of home care agencies to help potential residents and their families contract with.
These home health care facilitators typically take insurance, such as Medicare, Medicaid or Managed Long Term Care, or MLTC, to cover home care costs.
Additionally, Vassar-Warner will staff the home 24 hours a day, to have building supervision.
But overall, Von Salews and Schuster are looking ahead and are determined to have Vassar-Warner be the home it once was for the area’s older adults.
“This place has to succeed,” Von Salews said.
There’s nothing in her life she’s ever been more passionate about, she said. “I know it’s going to work.”
Nickie Hayes is the Breaking & Trending News Reporter for the Poughkeepsie Journal and focuses on how to make the most of what the mid-Hudson Valley has to offer. See her most recent articles here. Contact reporter Nickie Hayes: NHayes@poughkee.gannett.com, 845-863-3518 and @nickieehayess on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Poughkeepsie senior home’s resurgence a ‘promise kept’ to residents
Reporting by Nickie Hayes, Poughkeepsie Journal / Poughkeepsie Journal
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