Casella Waste Systems plans to build townhouses for its employees on the Rutland campus of the former College of St. Joseph, which closed in 2019. CEO John Casella said Thursday that he was pushed into the move because his workers were having trouble finding places to live, constraining the company’s growth. “The last thing we wanted to do was to get into the housing business, but at this point we don’t really have a choice,” he said, adding that it’s too early to say how many units the publicly traded company will build. “We want to continue to grow in Rutland County, and the only way we can do that is to try to fix a portion of this problem.” Rutland, like much of Vermont, has an acute shortage of homes to buy or rent. Lyle Jepson, the executive director of the Chamber and Economic Development of Rutland County, said the number of homes in the county converted to Airbnbs has increased tenfold in the last five years, from 100 to 1,000. “Even with slow population growth, Rutland County has a clear housing issue,” Jepson said in an email. Several small Vermont colleges have closed in recent years, which could present opportunities. The Vermont State College system is going through an extensive reorganization this year and has invited affordable housing developers to look at underused campus buildings that are expected to go on the market. [content-2] But converting college buildings into housing isn’t simple. They’re often located in rural areas, for one thing. Gus Seelig, the executive director of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, one of Vermont’s publicly funded affordable housing developers, said he prefers to build in downtown areas so residents who don’t have cars can reach stores and appointments. Seelig added that VHCB has talked to the state college system over the last few years about building affordable housing in buildings that are close to community centers. The colleges haven’t made final decisions about which buildings they will sell, said spokesperson Sylvia Plumb. Another hitch is that the buildings themselves can’t always easily be converted into apartments. But college campuses have advantages, too, said Seelig and Kathy Beyer, the senior vice president of real estate development for the affordable housing developer Evernorth, which serves northern New England. There’s strong support in Vermont for reusing historic buildings. And the properties often come with valuable infrastructure. “It’s very difficult…