WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Bloomington Mayor, John Hamilton, called a press conference today to show support for a project that would serve low-income senior citizens. The real estate company, Evergreen Partners, has been planning a 115-unit assisted living facility for seniors who earn less than 60 percent of the area median income. The $22M facility is planned for south Sare Road on the southeast side of town. The development got its first round of approvals from city officials last year. Today, Hamilton said that the $22M dollar facility will commit to serving low-income seniors for at least 30 years, which is 15 years longer than they are required to, under the federal tax credit program that is helping pay for the project.
He urged the Bloomington City Council to give final approval to the project, saying “I’m particularly pleased with this project that’s planned, because it helps fill such a desperate local need for affordable options for lower income seniors needing some assistance with daily living, but not a nursing home level of care. Over the next decades this facility, if completed, will offer dignity and help to hundreds of seniors and extended families struggling to make ends meet.”
The executive director of the Area 10 Agency on Aging, Kerry Conway, was at the press conference today, and she also expressed support for the project.
Conway noted that there is not currently an assisted living facility in Bloomington that serves low-income senior citizens.
“As executive director of the Area Agency on Aging, one of the things that we do is that we work with seniors and older adults or people with disabilities who are struggling with activities of daily living, and trying to remain in their homes for as long as possible and as long as it is safe. In this community, we have had very few options beyond trying to provide services in the home and nursing level of care facilities. In fact we’ve had zero options. And for those clients that have fallen into that chasm of care, we have had to refer them out of the community.
We all know in our hearts, and it can be statistically proven, that moving someone away from home for care shortens their life and certainly impacts their quality of life. To have a facility like this in our community is a godsend.”
Conway went on to say that some populations of area seniors have been disproportionately affected by the lack of affordable housing.
She referred specifically to the local LGBT community, saying “We have a very, very large LGBT Community. A very large community. For those 65 and older, our last survey that we did at the end of 2013 showed that at least 7% self-identified as LGBT. They are here because this a loving and supporting community. And even though equality in marriage is the law of the land now, we are still dealing with the fallout of the fact that it wasn’t for a long, long time.
And many of those that we serve, when they hit this chasm of care, they might make choices about how they are going to live that may not be the best for them because they don’t want to leave Bloomington. And now, they don’t have to.”
Despite Hamilton’s support, the project is not yet a done deal. The final plan must still receive approval from the Bloomington City Council.
