10-Story Apartment For Elderly Virtual Certainty - Near Campus Unit First In Country

10-Story Apartment For Elderly Virtual Certainty

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FOR THE ELDERLY: This architect’s drawing shows seven of 10 floors that will make up an apartment building for the elderly virtually certain to be built near the University campus under sponsorship of the local Senior Citizens Guild, The building at left is the Guild’s center for use by tenants and the community’s elderly.

10-Story Apartment For Elderly Virtual Certainty
 

Near-Campus Unit First In Country

Work Expected To Start In Fall On New Facility

By Jack Lewis

Construction is expected to start by November on a 10-story apartment building near the University campus ’ that will offer the elderly a new adventure in living, work and recreation.
 

The estimated $1,000,000 facility, the first of its type in the country, will include a Senior Citizens Guild center for use by the community, replacing the one at 323 Packard St.
 

The Guild is sponsor of the project. Four sites are under consideration.
 

A 98 per cent direct loan from the Housing and Home Finance Agency , to permit the project awaits approval. The application has not yet been filed, but it is understood that approval is all but assured.
 

Favors Project
 

Sidney Spector of Washington, D. C., assistant administrator of the HHFA office of housing for the elderly, said here today:
 

“The kind of group sponsoring the project and the intent of the project itself are the type which the direct loan program was designed to support.”
 

Spector, who is attending the University’s Conference on Aging, said a unique feature of the housing project is “its integral relation to research and training at the famed gerontological center at the University of Michigan.”
 

Mrs. Shata Ling, Guild secretary, is the guiding force behind planning to realize a housing installation where the elderly can make contributions to the community while living in low-rent, new housing.
 

The Guild recently amended its charter to permit it to carry forth the $1,000,000 project as a non-profit venture. And in a special resolution the Guild authorized the Elderly Housing Development Services, Inc., to design the buildings.
 

That concern was set up by Architect James H. Livingston of Ann Arbor to design facilities for the elderly here and elsewhere in the country.
 

The Guild will be required to put up about $20,000 to permit the go-ahead of the project, and a Guild officer, John C. Stegeman of Ann Arbor, chairman of the Guild’s housing committee, indicated today this money is forthcoming.
 

The Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor Western in a special meeting yesterday pledged funds, manpower and resources as an associate sponsor toward helping raise the $20,000, John H. Thompson, Guild president, said.
 

The building will have 80 efficiency and one-bedroom units, with 8 to 12 units on each floor where there is a gathering room for tenants and visitors. The gathering room emphasizes the floor-by-floor community aspect.
 

Facilities will be included for a day school where tenants who are fond of children can care for them while augmenting their income.
 

There will be tenant-operated knit-and-sew and gift shops. Tenants so inclined can knit and make creations and sell them, with profits going to charitable groups. The gift shop will provide another outlet for persons who like to be occupied.
 

In the adjacent Senior Citizens Guild center there will be meeting rooms, offices, craft shops, a pool room for use by tenants and other elderly persons within the community.
 

In the high-rise 10-story building there will be a roof-top cafeteria-dining room with garden and deck area. And there will be a room that tenants can use to entertain friends and relatives.
 

Other facilities include a physical fitness room and service stores, such as barber and beauty shops.
 

Each apartment will contain its own kitchen where tenants can prepare meals. The efficiency apartments will rent for $65 a month. Most apartments will be furnished by tenants.
 

The apartment project will be self-liquidating under the 50-year HHFA loan at 3 1/2 per cent interest.
 

Persons must be at least 62 to qualify for residence. Applicants may send letters requesting residency to Mrs. Ling, 323 Packard St.