Mayor targets senior housing as goal for 2006

Village officials have been discussing the priority for 18 months.
By TIM YOVICH
Vindicator Trumbull Staff
LORDSTOWN -- Mayor Michael A. Chaffee has made attracting senior housing to the village a priority this year.
"That's certainly the goal," Chaffee said. "Everybody, at least outwardly, is in favor of it."
The mayor explained that people generally want to remain where they have lived for so many years. They are looking for housing that is short of assisted living that they can purchase or rent.
The topic of senior housing has been off and on the administration's agenda for about 18 months, but discussions died down last summer.
Chaffee said he somewhat blames himself because he hasn't been able to provide village council with a comprehensive plan for its development.
He said condominiums are being built along Salt Springs Road, but they are not designed specifically for the needs of senior residents.
Chaffee said he and Ron Barnhart, village planning and zoning administrator, are looking for a bridge between a residential home and assisted living.
A one-floor facility with individual units and porches would fit the bill.
"It would be more like a home," Barnhart said.
"It would be nice if our residents had some options," Chaffee said. "It's time to move forward" as village residents are getting older.
The mayor said he hopes availability of senior housing will open up the vacated houses to younger families who want to move into the village -- but can't find a house or can't afford to build one.
Chaffee and Barnhart said they have met with Donald Emerson Jr., director of the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority.
The rooms were too small in the federal housing they looked at. And, that type of housing is also too institutional, they added.
Chaffee said he plans on being aggressive in dealing with those who have already contacted the village about building senior housing.
The village owns four to five acres toward the rear of its administration building along Salt Springs Road that can be made available, but the project isn't limited to village-owned property, the mayor explained.
They visualize a board on which some village residents would sit to assure that any senior housing is first made available to village residents and then others.
"We don't want to be the landlord or manage it or own it," Chaffee said.
Discrimination illegal
Emerson, an attorney, said the village or development owner would be on questionable legal grounds if priority went to village residents.
"There is nothing wrong with a board overseeing the process," Emerson said. "There are federal laws for a reason. You can't discriminate, even with a private developer."
"It has to pass the smell test," he noted.
Emerson said he realizes that people visualize inner-city "projects" when dealing with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds.
Such developments, he explained, provide affordable housing as opposed to subsidized housing.
In addition, Emerson said that there is also a fear by communities that it's not the residents of senior housing that cause problem, but the younger people -- family and friends -- that visit them.
He agreed with Chaffee, though, that older people in any community generally want to live there.
"You're not going to have an influx of folks" from other communities moving to Lordstown, Emerson said.
Emerson explained that TMHA isn't interested in building senior housing in the village, noting that when he met with village officials, they seemed occupied with questions swirling around a proposed casino.
However, he said the authority is willing to work with nonprofit groups to help them apply for tax credits and state and federal funds to construct affordable senior housing.
yovich@vindy.com