{"id":248165,"date":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/safe-welcoming-and-affordable\/"},"modified":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","slug":"safe-welcoming-and-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/safe-welcoming-and-affordable\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe, welcoming and affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Park housing project for LGBT seniors moves toward final green light<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Margie Palmer<\/p>\n

The San Diego Planning Commission has approved the development of an LGBT-affirmative senior housing complex in North Park.<\/p>\n

A public hearing was held on Dec. 18, where commission members gave the plan a unanimous nod and are recommending the City Council grant final approval next month.<\/p>\n

\"Artist\u2019s
Artist\u2019s rendition of the LGBT-affirming senior housing complex coming to North Park at northwest corner of Texas Street and Howard Avenue. (Rendering by Joe Cordelle; architecture by Rodriguez + Associates Architects and Planners)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 76-home senior apartment building is set to be located on the northwest corner of Texas Street and Howard Avenue and will sit adjacent to a 118-home multifamily building on the northeast corner.<\/p>\n

The mixed-income development is the brainchild of nonprofit developers Community HousingWorks (CHW), which has partnered with the San Diego LGBT Community Center to help bring the project to fruition.<\/p>\n

CHW said the senior apartments were designed as an affirming and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors. The Center said its staff will provide services welcoming to the entire senior community of residents.<\/p>\n

Since its inception, the proposal has generated considerable neighborhood support and received official backing from the North Park Planning Committee (NPPC).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur committee overwhelmingly supported the proposed development,\u201d said NPPC Chair Vicki Granowitz. \u201cWe like that it brings well-designed new housing options to our community, and also provides for seniors on limited incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed design provides a large, open plaza at the northeast corner of Texas and Howard and significantly enhances the pedestrian experience along Texas Street. Building frontages on Howard Avenue and Arizona Street were designed to have a residential feel that complemented the existing residential uses on the opposite side of the street.<\/p>\n

CHW officials stated that based on a previous study released by The Center, they identified that San Diego\u2019s LGBT seniors were a particularly vulnerable demographic in need of affordable, welcoming living spaces.<\/p>\n

The study also indicated that America\u2019s LGBT seniors were far more likely than their non-LGBT counterparts to not have a family-based support network, especially since the vast majority of LGBT seniors are more likely to be single and not have children.<\/p>\n

Dr. Delores Jacobs, CEO of The Center, said they are very enthusiastic about the collaborative project.<\/p>\n

\u201cLGBT seniors have very few options for affirming and supportive housing \u2014 and for our low-income seniors, the situation is even more difficult,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cThis development provides a significant step in the direction of making sure LGBT seniors in San Diego can live with dignity. The fact that it\u2019s a CHW development makes it even more exciting, as it gives us full confidence that it will be a safe, supportive, well-planned community that anyone would be proud to call home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development uses an affordable housing density bonus to help make the affordable development feasible.<\/p>\n

Under that program, 23 of the senior apartments will be restricted to very low income households earning 50 percent or less of the county\u2019s median income.<\/p>\n

CHW Vice President Dave Gatzke said the loss of redevelopment agency funding throughout California has made resources for affordable housing very limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled that this mixed-income approach allows us to bring both high-quality market rate development to North Park and offset the gap in funding we have in building affordable housing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CHW said their intent is to find additional funding sources and to break ground in 2016 with all 76 of the apartments to be affordable.<\/p>\n

For more information about CHW, or to stay up to date on this project, visit chworks.org and find \u201cnorth park chw\u201d listed under real estate development and current projects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014Margie Palmer is a San Diego-based freelance writer who has been racking up bylines in a myriad of news publications for the past 10 years. You can write to her at margiep@alumni.pitt.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Park housing project for LGBT seniors moves toward final green light By Margie Palmer The San Diego Planning Commission has approved the development of an LGBT-affirmative senior housing complex in North Park. A public hearing was held on Dec. 18, where commission members gave the plan a unanimous nod and are recommending the City […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":248166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Safe, welcoming and affordable","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}