A new housing project designated 100% affordable and catering to seniors and low-income families in City Heights is in the final stages of construction.
The project has 78 family units and 117 units for seniors.
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Fred Davis is a volunteer with Serving Seniors, the nonprofit organization that will help operate the building.
“No matter where the location is here in San Diego, we still need housing for seniors,” he said. “We have a new generation of homeless seniors. Everything is going up, and most of the seniors live below the federal poverty level.”
The new development is located at the busy crossroads of Fairmount Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard.
Serving Seniors CEO Paul Downey told KPBS that residents would have access to on-site activities and case management services, and they can receive no-cost meals just a few blocks away, at another Serving Seniors affordable housing complex.
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But the building is not just for seniors: It will also be a space for low-income families through a collaboration with Price Philanthropies.
“Sometimes with affordable housing, we tend to kind of warehouse. We put a bunch of seniors here, we put a bunch of veterans there, or families only over here,” Downey said. “Really having that cross-generational interaction is healthy and normal, and it benefits everyone who’s living there.”
The building is tentatively scheduled to open in late summer.
Erik Tilkemeier, the director of housing for the City Heights Community Development Corporation, said the new development would help, but another issue that affects low-income residents in San Diego is a lack of middle-income housing.
“If you can only afford to pay $1,500 a month rent, you can't go rent a $2,000-a-month place, but you can go rent a $1,000-a-month place. And that takes it away from somebody who can only afford the $1,000 a month rent,” Tilkemeier said.
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Prospective residents who are 62 and older can now register their interest in the housing complex at servingseniors.org.
Downey said to register soon as demand is very high.
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