Eleanor Roosevelt: Affordable Senior Housing Project Goes Awry

Unfortunately the project seems wrought with a variety of problems. Mayor Sue Greenwald announced at the most recent city council meeting that they were having trouble getting local applicants. They had managed to attract only a few seniors from Davis. And shortly they would advertise the project regionally and open it up to seniors from a variety of other areas. This was obviously a bit of a disappointment since they had wanted to great a facility to meet the needs of the local population.

Anne Evans, who is a local advocate for the disabled pointed out that the age barrier might be prohibitive. She suggested that there were a number of disabled seniors from the age of 55-61 who were not eligible for this project because of the age restriction of 62. And she made the point that it is very difficult for seniors over 55 who were disabled to find affordable housing in Davis.

It seems only logical that they would extend the age range down to 55 before they had to advertise regionally. There is not legitimate reason why a 55-year-old could not live there.

Apparently this is not the only problem with the project. It is too close to students and a number of seniors do not want to deal with the noise and late night activity. But perhaps some of this could be mitigated with a more realistic age range.

—Doug Paul Davis reporting