Catholic Charities to take over St. Joseph’s Provincial House

Will be their new headquarters in the Capital Region

Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Albany Province, announced June 27 they have entered into a conceptual agreement to transfer ownership of the St. Joseph’s Provincial House building in Latham to Catholic Charities. The transfer is contingent upon local government and final internal approvals.

“As Sisters of St. Joseph, we have a legacy of dedicating our lives to love God and our neighbors. Our call is to be beacons of hope and work with others to create a more compassionate and just world,” said Sister Joan Mary Hartigan, CSJ, Province Director. “For these reasons, we are delighted that our Albany Provincial House will continue to be a central home for services that support and advocate for persons who are experiencing economic hardships and vulnerability in our community,”  

Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese is one of the largest, private providers of social services programs across 14 counties of upstate New York. Last year, its programs and services helped an estimated 70,000 people. Catholic Charities would relocate its executive offices and consolidate many other offices and meeting spaces in a central location at the Provincial House at 385 Watervliet-Shaker Road. 

“Bringing a number of our offices and service sites into one beautiful location with space to envision and plan for future needs with the community is a tremendous blessing,” said Sister Betsy Van Deusen, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Charities and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph. “We are grateful to the Sisters of St. Joseph for this extraordinary opportunity.”

The Sisters of St. Joseph have owned and occupied the Provincial House for 60 years. It has been the residence, office and spiritual home of the order, but is now too large for the sisters’ current and projected needs. It was built to accommodate more than 250 sisters. Fewer than 60 live there today. The sisters no longer have the membership to manage healthcare for their sisters from this facility nor the financial resources to maintain the building.  

The Provincial House in Colonie was the third center for the Sisters of St. Joseph, Albany Province. It replaced earlier residences in Troy, the first of which opened in 1864. It has been a center of community services for decades. In addition to providing homes and offices for the sisters, the Provincial House was the site of the Carondelet Educational Center, which served children with learning and speech disabilities, and the Carondelet Music Center, which provided music lessons and performance opportunities for students aged 3 to 88. In 2020, the Sisters of St. Joseph began partnering with Eddy Senior Care to offer an all-inclusive holistic care PACE program serving sisters and seniors in Albany and Rensselaer counties. This will continue. Catholic Charities would welcome Eddy Senior Care as an established partner operating from the Provincial House. 

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany was established in 1917. It serves the poor and vulnerable, including people with developmental disabilities, pregnant and parenting teens, victims of domestic violence and people in need of mental health counseling and support; low income families, people who are unemployed, in prison or experiencing homelessness. Today, approximately 750 Catholic Charities employees and 1,300 volunteers serve people in 14 counties from the Hudson Valley to the Capital Region, north to the Adirondacks and west to Central New York.