Re: Feds Kill Funds for Most Successful Senior Housing Project

Securing a new low income apartment for Cathy's mom was as painful an
experience as we've had in some years. We talked her into leaving her
long time apartment in Renton, the town she had lived in for over 86
years, and move into our home until we found a new apartment closer to
our home. Bedbugs had infested her building, and the management was
doing a very inadequate job of controlling them. Twice they sprayed
her apartment, and twice the bedbugs returned. They were simply
chasing them from one apartment to the next...and back again. Once we
had Dorothy settled in with us, we began the difficult task of
locating apartments that accepted Section 8 vouchers. We quickly
discovered that such housing is as scarce as those proverbial hen's
teeth. And what was available did not qualify as "living quarters" in
any stretch of the imagination. We visited places that were so dirty
that I was certain they had been housing chickens prior to being
advertised as "apartments". Old buildings with rotting steps and
garbage strewn around the trampled yard. Larger apartment buildings
in the rundown part of town, with halls that smelled of old cabbage
and urine. Fire traps housing elderly poor folks and drug addicts.
Of course we were informed that the drug addicts were all clean an in
rehab programs. But I have not lost my ability to identify a user
from someone working a program.
So we finally found an apartment in Silverdale. Silverdale is about
forty minutes drive from our home, which is far better than the 2.5
hours from here to Renton. In earlier posts I've described this very
lovely apartment complex. There should be many more buildings of this
quality for elderly poor people. But instead, much of the low income
housing is being torn down and replaced by "mixed housing" complexes.
A few low income units along with some mostly priced rentals as well
as some upscale housing. I think the concept of mixing the levels of
incomes, rather than isolating the poorer folks to housing projects,
is a good one. But if communities don't at least replace the number
of low income units being removed, then people will be moving into
packing crates. Our older population is growing each year. The
number of older people falling below the poverty line is growing.
Organizations such as the ACB and the NFB need to keep the pressure on
Congress to increase support for low income housing, rather than
cutting funding. I sincerely hope no one on this list is waiting for
our Noble Leader, President Obama to take up our cause.

Carl Jarvis


On 10/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Carl,
>
> I thought about your mother-in-law when I read that article. I was
> wondering
> if it is in that particular federal program and I thought what a miracle it
> was that you were able to help her get it.
>
> Miriam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
> Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 1:14 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Feds Kill Funds for Most Successful Senior Housing Project
>
> After four months of battling with indifferent housing authorities in
> Renton
> and to some degree, in Bremerton, we finally kissed my mother-in-law good
> bye last night, and left her in her new apartment, heading home to our
> empty
> house. The Vintage Apartments in Silverdale are far above the majority of
> low income housing that we toured. But even worse than the condition of
> some of these buildings, was the fact that they all have waiting lists.
> There is far too little decent housing for elderly people on low income.
> And from the article below, it looks as if this is another sacrifice
> Americans must make in order to enjoy a free land. That last line was
> sarcasm.
>
> Carl Jarvis
> On 10/27/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Feds Kill Funds for
>> Most Successful Senior Housing Project
>> ________________________________________
>> New America Media [1] / By Andre Shashaty [2]
>>
>> Feds Kill Funds for Most Successful Senior Housing Project
>>
>>
>> October 27, 2014 |
>> When construction started in mid-October on Heritage Park Senior
>> Village in Taylor, Michigan, it marked the end of 55 years of effort
>> by the federal government to make sure low-income elders can live out
>> their years in decent housing.
>>
>> The development getting underway 18 miles southwest of downtown
>> Detroit is one of the very last to be constructed under a federal
>> housing program that dates back to 1959.
>>
>> The Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program produced
>> 20,000 housing units per year at its peak in the 1970s. It provided
>> public housing agencies and nonprofit groups with grants that covered
>> the cost to build decent rental housing, as well as subsidies for
>> people who were too poor to pay market-rate rents for comparable housing.
>> Obama's Rush to Cut Funds
>>
>> But three years ago, at the height of the new congressional obsession
>> with budget cutting, the Obama Administration stopped requesting money
>> for new construction under the program. Funding continues at a reduced
>> level to renew existing rental subsidies on existing properties, as
>> well as for repairs and improvements to those properties.
>>
>> But federal support for new Sec. 202 construction has ended, with
>> little prospect it will ever be revived.
>>
>> It was not for lack of need, which is very great and growing
> substantially.
>> It was not because there was something wrong with the program. There
>> was not. In fact, federal officials and many of the nonprofits that
>> sponsored Sec. 202 projects have said it was the most successful
>> federal housing production program in history.
>>
>> "There were no issues with the program," said Alayna Waldrum, who
>> works on legislation for Leading Age, an association working on
>> housing and other issues affecting the elderly. "The primary reason
>> was the rush to cut as much funding as they possibly could," she added.
>>
>> If you thought elders were a powerful political force because they
>> vote, think again. Advocates say there was not a single member of
>> Congress prepared to stick his or her neck out to rally support for
>> new construction of Sec. 202 housing.
>>
>> Like other Sec. 202 projects before it, Heritage Park Senior Village
>> will serve households in which at least one member is age 62 or older.
>> Residents will pay no more than 30 percent of their adjusted income on
>> rent. The 77-unit building is being developed by Volunteers of
>> America, which operates
>> 149 Sec. 202 projects with 7,718 units.
>>
>> Sec. 202 housing is open to households that earn no more than 50
>> percent of their area's median income, and most of the tenants are
>> dependent on Social Security for most or all of their income.
>> The private market no longer produces any new housing affordable to
>> people at that income level, and much of the older housing stock that
>> was affordable has been demolished and replaced with upscale
>> developments.
>>
>> Secure Housing Transformed Lives
>>
>> The buildings the program has produced for over 50 years offer modest
>> apartments with basic architecture. But those properties have
>> transformed the lives of many older Americans.
>>
>> Tenants of Sec. 202 have a ready community of peers so they're rarely
>> lonely and disconnected, a common problem for elders living alone. The
>> tenants have well-maintained homes with security and social
>> activities. They receive help connecting with social and health
>> services. Most importantly, they have economic security. They no
>> longer have to worry that their savings will run out and they'll have
>> nowhere to live.
>>
>> No one disputes that cutting the program's funding is completely
>> contrary to common sense. In 2002, the congressional Commission on
>> Affordable Housing and Health Facility Needs for Seniors in the 21st
>> Century [3]called the shortfall of such housing a "quiet crisis." It
>> called for building 40,000 units per year to house the growing numbers
>> of low-income elders. But instead of ramping up, Congress tamped
>> down--all the way to nothing.
>>
>> "The bottom line is that, with the end of new construction under Sec.
>> 202, we are very close to the point where we will begin losing
>> affordable seniors housing faster than it is being developed," said
>> Thomas Slemmer, president and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based National
>> Church Residences, one of the nation's largest nonprofit providers of
>> affordable seniors housing.
>>
>> Existing Sec. 202 buildings are getting old, considering that the
>> program began in 1959. So an increasing number of properties will be
>> lost to obsolescence each year.
>>
>> For every person who gets into a government-subsidized apartment,
>> there are 10 households waiting for one. Demand is highest in urban
>> areas. In places with large proportions of low-income elders,
>> often-ethnic seniors, it's off the charts.
>>
>> "It is very hard to tell seniors in desperate need of housing that the
>> wait in most cases is two to three years," said Steve Protulis,
>> executive director of the nonprofitElderly Housing Development and
>> Operations Corporation [4], based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
>>
>> Demand Will Skyrocket
>>
>> In the coming years, demand for affordable housing among low-income
>> elders will skyrocket, said Robin Keller, vice president of real
>> estate development for Volunteers of America. The number of older
>> Americans is quickly increasing, and their financial resources have
>> declined overall, she said.
>>
>> The 65-plus population in the United States will leap to 55 million by
>> 2020, up from 40 million in 2010. The number of those 85 and older
>> will increase even more sharply by then, almost tripling from 3
>> million to 8.75 million.
>>
>> Households headed by people 65 or more reported a median income in
>> 2010 of $45,763. But older women living alone had a median income of
>> only about $15,000. They are the primary users of Sec. 202 housing,
>> and their numbers are growing.
>>
>> Among Social Security beneficiaries, the average monthly benefit is
>> $1,269, or about $14,000 per year. In almost any U.S. metropolitan
>> area, those who rely heavily on Social Security cannot afford any
>> housing available on the private market.
>> In 2011, one in three renter households with a member over 65 paid
>> more than half of their income for rent and utilities, according to
>> the U.S. Census Bureau's American Housing Survey.
>>
>> Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
>>
>> Sec. 202 properties are designed as independent-living facilities
>> where residents can cook their own meals and take care of themselves.
>> But the properties also help people live active, socially rich lives,
>> which helps them stay healthier longer, reducing or postponing their
>> need for medical care.
>>
>> Every Sec. 202 property has a system in place for connecting residents
>> with outside services, such as health care, transportation, education
>> and social activities.
>>
>> The federal government is converting some of the rental apartments in
>> Sec.
>> 202 properties to much needed assisted living, where frail elders get
>> help with their essential daily activities. But funding for this sort
>> of transformation is very limited.
>> By 2020 an estimated 1.3 million low-income elders will require
>> assistance with such daily activities as eating or using a toilet, and
>> Sec. 202 properties are generally well suited to be adapted for this
>> care.
>>
>> "Sec. 202 housing is a bargain," said Slemmer. "Stable living
>> environments can lower health care costs on their own, but when you
>> factor in the work our managers do to link tenants with services, it
>> is an even greater savings."
>>
>> He and other Sec. 202 sponsors note that people living in their
>> properties do not need nursing care until very late in life compared
>> with people in other living situations.
>>
>> "If we keep people in affordable housing with social service
>> coordinators connecting them to low-cost or free services, it keeps
>> them out of nursing homes, where the daily cost is much higher," one
> project sponsor said.
>>
>> Without enough Sec. 202 units to meet the needs of a growing
>> population of low -income elders, more and more older adults will make
>> their way into nursing homes, whether they really need to or not, with
>> depressing personal results and the cost shifted to tax-supported
> Medicaid.
>> [5]
>>
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> affordable housing [6],
>> elderly housing [7],
>> retirement security crisis [8]
>> ________________________________________
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/economy/feds-kill-funds-most-successful-senior
>> -housi
>> ng-project
>> Links:
>> [1] http://www.newamericamedia.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/andre-shashaty
>> [3] http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/seniorscommission/
>> [4] http://www.ehdoc.org/
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Feds Kill Funds
>> for Most Successful Senior Housing Project [6]
>> http://www.alternet.org/tags/affordable-housing
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/elderly-housing
>> [8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/retirement-security-crisis
>> [9] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Feds Kill Funds
>> for Most Successful Senior Housing Project
>>
>> New America Media [1] / By Andre Shashaty [2]
>>
>> Feds Kill Funds for Most Successful Senior Housing Project October 27,
>> 2014 | When construction started in mid-October on Heritage Park
>> Senior Village in Taylor, Michigan, it marked the end of 55 years of
>> effort by the federal government to make sure low-income elders can
>> live out their years in decent housing.
>>
>> The development getting underway 18 miles southwest of downtown
>> Detroit is one of the very last to be constructed under a federal
>> housing program that dates back to 1959.
>>
>> The Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program produced
>> 20,000 housing units per year at its peak in the 1970s. It provided
>> public housing agencies and nonprofit groups with grants that covered
>> the cost to build decent rental housing, as well as subsidies for
>> people who were too poor to pay market-rate rents for comparable housing.
>> Obama's Rush to Cut Funds
>>
>> But three years ago, at the height of the new congressional obsession
>> with budget cutting, the Obama Administration stopped requesting money
>> for new construction under the program. Funding continues at a reduced
>> level to renew existing rental subsidies on existing properties, as
>> well as for repairs and improvements to those properties.
>>
>> But federal support for new Sec. 202 construction has ended, with
>> little prospect it will ever be revived.
>>
>> It was not for lack of need, which is very great and growing
> substantially.
>> It was not because there was something wrong with the program. There
>> was not. In fact, federal officials and many of the nonprofits that
>> sponsored Sec. 202 projects have said it was the most successful
>> federal housing production program in history.
>>
>> "There were no issues with the program," said Alayna Waldrum, who
>> works on legislation for Leading Age, an association working on
>> housing and other issues affecting the elderly. "The primary reason
>> was the rush to cut as much funding as they possibly could," she added.
>>
>> If you thought elders were a powerful political force because they
>> vote, think again. Advocates say there was not a single member of
>> Congress prepared to stick his or her neck out to rally support for
>> new construction of Sec. 202 housing.
>>
>> Like other Sec. 202 projects before it, Heritage Park Senior Village
>> will serve households in which at least one member is age 62 or older.
>> Residents will pay no more than 30 percent of their adjusted income on
>> rent. The 77-unit building is being developed by Volunteers of
>> America, which operates
>> 149 Sec. 202 projects with 7,718 units.
>>
>> Sec. 202 housing is open to households that earn no more than 50
>> percent of their area's median income, and most of the tenants are
>> dependent on Social Security for most or all of their income.
>> The private market no longer produces any new housing affordable to
>> people at that income level, and much of the older housing stock that
>> was affordable has been demolished and replaced with upscale
>> developments.
>>
>> Secure Housing Transformed Lives
>>
>> The buildings the program has produced for over 50 years offer modest
>> apartments with basic architecture. But those properties have
>> transformed the lives of many older Americans.
>>
>> Tenants of Sec. 202 have a ready community of peers so they're rarely
>> lonely and disconnected, a common problem for elders living alone. The
>> tenants have well-maintained homes with security and social
>> activities. They receive help connecting with social and health
>> services. Most importantly, they have economic security. They no
>> longer have to worry that their savings will run out and they'll have
>> nowhere to live.
>>
>> No one disputes that cutting the program's funding is completely
>> contrary to common sense. In 2002, the congressional Commission on
>> Affordable Housing and Health Facility Needs for Seniors in the 21st
>> Century [3]called the shortfall of such housing a "quiet crisis." It
>> called for building 40,000 units per year to house the growing numbers
>> of low-income elders. But instead of ramping up, Congress tamped
>> down--all the way to nothing.
>>
>> "The bottom line is that, with the end of new construction under Sec.
>> 202, we are very close to the point where we will begin losing
>> affordable seniors housing faster than it is being developed," said
>> Thomas Slemmer, president and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based National
>> Church Residences, one of the nation's largest nonprofit providers of
>> affordable seniors housing.
>>
>> Existing Sec. 202 buildings are getting old, considering that the
>> program began in 1959. So an increasing number of properties will be
>> lost to obsolescence each year.
>>
>> For every person who gets into a government-subsidized apartment,
>> there are 10 households waiting for one. Demand is highest in urban
>> areas. In places with large proportions of low-income elders,
>> often-ethnic seniors, it's off the charts.
>>
>> "It is very hard to tell seniors in desperate need of housing that the
>> wait in most cases is two to three years," said Steve Protulis,
>> executive director of the nonprofitElderly Housing Development and
>> Operations Corporation [4], based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
>>
>> Demand Will Skyrocket
>>
>> In the coming years, demand for affordable housing among low-income
>> elders will skyrocket, said Robin Keller, vice president of real
>> estate development for Volunteers of America. The number of older
>> Americans is quickly increasing, and their financial resources have
>> declined overall, she said.
>>
>> The 65-plus population in the United States will leap to 55 million by
>> 2020, up from 40 million in 2010. The number of those 85 and older
>> will increase even more sharply by then, almost tripling from 3
>> million to 8.75 million.
>>
>> Households headed by people 65 or more reported a median income in
>> 2010 of $45,763. But older women living alone had a median income of
>> only about $15,000. They are the primary users of Sec. 202 housing,
>> and their numbers are growing.
>>
>> Among Social Security beneficiaries, the average monthly benefit is
>> $1,269, or about $14,000 per year. In almost any U.S. metropolitan
>> area, those who rely heavily on Social Security cannot afford any
>> housing available on the private market.
>> In 2011, one in three renter households with a member over 65 paid
>> more than half of their income for rent and utilities, according to
>> the U.S. Census Bureau's American Housing Survey.
>>
>> Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
>>
>> Sec. 202 properties are designed as independent-living facilities
>> where residents can cook their own meals and take care of themselves.
>> But the properties also help people live active, socially rich lives,
>> which helps them stay healthier longer, reducing or postponing their
>> need for medical care.
>>
>> Every Sec. 202 property has a system in place for connecting residents
>> with outside services, such as health care, transportation, education
>> and social activities.
>>
>> The federal government is converting some of the rental apartments in
>> Sec.
>> 202 properties to much needed assisted living, where frail elders get
>> help with their essential daily activities. But funding for this sort
>> of transformation is very limited.
>> By 2020 an estimated 1.3 million low-income elders will require
>> assistance with such daily activities as eating or using a toilet, and
>> Sec. 202 properties are generally well suited to be adapted for this
>> care.
>>
>> "Sec. 202 housing is a bargain," said Slemmer. "Stable living
>> environments can lower health care costs on their own, but when you
>> factor in the work our managers do to link tenants with services, it
>> is an even greater savings."
>>
>> He and other Sec. 202 sponsors note that people living in their
>> properties do not need nursing care until very late in life compared
>> with people in other living situations.
>>
>> "If we keep people in affordable housing with social service
>> coordinators connecting them to low-cost or free services, it keeps
>> them out of nursing homes, where the daily cost is much higher," one
> project sponsor said.
>>
>> Without enough Sec. 202 units to meet the needs of a growing
>> population of low -income elders, more and more older adults will make
>> their way into nursing homes, whether they really need to or not, with
>> depressing personal results and the cost shifted to tax-supported
> Medicaid.
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Feds Kill Funds for
>> Most Successful Senior Housing Project
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Feds Kill Funds for
>> Most Successful Senior Housing Project[5] See more stories tagged
>> with:
>> affordable housing [6],
>> elderly housing [7],
>> retirement security crisis [8]
>>
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/economy/feds-kill-funds-most-successful-senior
>> -housi
>> ng-project
>> Links:
>> [1] http://www.newamericamedia.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/andre-shashaty
>> [3] http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/seniorscommission/
>> [4] http://www.ehdoc.org/
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Feds Kill Funds
>> for Most Successful Senior Housing Project [6]
>> http://www.alternet.org/tags/affordable-housing
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/elderly-housing
>> [8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/retirement-security-crisis
>> [9] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blind-Democracy mailing list
>> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
>> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>>
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