A Place Called Home – Update on Senior Affordable Housing
I want to make sure that you know the latest about Senior Affordable Housing on our campus. The Residences at Equality Park will be affordable housing for Senior adults, with a special focus on LGBTQ individuals. We will give local LGBTQ Seniors a permanent and safe place to live along with the culturally competent supportive services they need to stay there. As we’ve announced previously, Phase I of The Residences at Equality Park will be built utilizing the 9% Federal Tax Credits issued by Florida Housing. With the current administration in D.C. exploring major tax reform, the tax credit market has been unstable this year. The potentially lower value of the awarded tax credits to investors would not have raised the required funds to build our project. So this Spring, Carrfour–our partner in the project–requested Florida Housing to place our tax credits on a temporary hold. There are currently 30 – 40 projects just in the State of Florida that are in a similar holding pattern, waiting to see what will happen with the tax credit market. In the interim, Florida Housing put out an RFA making $20M available. Carrfour submitted our application to receive some of this gap funding. Thankfully, we recently learned that we received additional funding of $862,000. This is big news. This helps close the gap–but does not represent the entire amount needed.
Recently I attended several community meetings with Housing Broward, the coordinating council of Broward Housing Council. Broward County has the most cost burdened rental market in the nation. Local households are the most severely burdened in the nation. Today, for current residents, Broward County needs 70,000 affordable rental units. That’s why Housing Broward is dedicating $5 million per year for the next three years from the General Fund. We hope to be able to apply for a portion of that funding in Year 1 to close the gap entirely for our project to proceed.
We remain passionate and excited about meeting this real community need. The Residences at Equality Park will represent South Florida’s first affordable housing project with customized supportive services for LGBTQ seniors. We already provide a safety-net of services on this campus for local Seniors. The Residences, coupled with The Center’s growing seniors programming– the largest LGBTQ seniors program nationwide–will give residents a permanent, safe place to live and support services they need to age in place. The Residences joins a growing national trend in which senior affordable housing projects area being built in conjunction with LGBTQ community centers in major cities across the country, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago and Philadelphia. Most recently a project was announced on Long Island.
As we’ve shared over the past few years, this is affordable housing, as compared to “low income” housing. The difference is that “affordable housing” is for tenants with three to four times the rent amount in income. “Low-income housing” is for tenants with barely two times the rent in income.
The ultimate goal of the project will include 120-130 units. Phase I will include 48 units. This is the phase for which we applied—and were successfully awarded—the 9% Federal tax credits issued by Florida Housing. All units are affordable housing for older adults (55+) earning less than 60% of the area’s median income (AMI), approximately $35,000 annually. Please note: every single unit is for Seniors; no one under 55 can live in The Residences (sorry to all the young hotties out there!) I most recently confirmed this with our attorney for the project, Wendy Wilson, at Legal Aid Broward County. Ms. Wilson specializes in the area of affordable housing.
In addition, 70% of these units (34) are designated for seniors living with disabling conditions, such as physical illnesses or disabilities due to complications from HIV/AIDS. These Seniors must be able to live independently, but will benefit from the array of services available on campus. According to a recent survey by the Institute for Multigenerational Health, 47 percent of LGBTQ seniors in the U.S. are currently living with a disabling condition. This is the personal reality we face every Tuesday morning when over 200 Seniors gather in our main hall for Coffee and Conversation.
The Proposed Phase II, including an additional 70-80 units, would be developed at a later date. We have not applied for or received funding for Phase II. Over the past two years, The Center has partnered with Carrfour, Florida’s largest nonprofit affordable housing developer in the development of The Residences at Equality Park. Carrfour will serve as the project’s developer, operator and service coordinator. The Pride Center, with over 24 years of experience serving the LGBTQ community in South Florida, will provide residents with innovative on-site supportive services, including healthcare navigation and coordination, senior support groups, workshops, exercise and recreational activities.
Not a week goes by that Kristofer Fegenbush, COO, or I don’t get a phone call from someone asking if they could add their name to “the list’. It hurts to hear the disappointment in their voice when we tell them we are not at that point in the process, and that it will probably be two years before we are. It solidifies in my mind that the Board of Directors, the staff and The Pride Center are headed in the right direction. It shows the foresight of our Board of Directors who worked with the community to revise our Mission Statement when we moved to this campus: “We provide a welcoming safe space – an inclusive HOME, that celebrates, nurtures and empowers the LGBT communities and our friends and neighbors in South Florida.”
