NHC member Enterprise recently announced a LIHTC deal to create a development in Santa Cruz County, Arizona for older adults. Bowman Senior Residences will feature 48 apartments for older adults earning less than 60 percent of the area median income ($20,000 per person), and replace two dilapidated buildings in the area. Data from the American Community Survey (2010-2013) shows that the median income for householders age 65 and over in the U.S. for the three-year period of 2010-2013 was $37,137. For householders aged 65 and over for the same period in Arizona, the median income was slightly higher, at $39,210.
The development is financed primarily by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, with nearly $10 million syndicated by Enterprise. Co-sponsors are Gorman & Company, Inc. and Nogales Community Development Corporation. The apartment community will provide residents with many on-site services, including nutrition and financial literacy classes, health screenings, weekly transportation services, wellness classes and more. The development will also allow them to have easy access to the surrounding community.
“Creating Bowman Senior Residences is the latest step toward Enterprise’s generational goal of ending housing insecurity in the U.S., so that nobody is homeless or paying more than 50 percent of their income on housing,” Raoul Moore, Enterprise’s senior vice president of syndication said in a press release. “It’s critical to grow the supply of quality, affordable homes with services for seniors to keep pace with America’s aging population.”
NHC’s most recent report, Housing Landscape 2015, found that 33 percent of working households face extreme housing cost burden and forfeit a majority of their income on housing related costs. This burden often becomes even more difficult for older adults, many of whom are on fixed-incomes. Developments like Bowman Senior Residences will help to lessen the burden older adults face when trying to afford decent housing.
Bowman Senior Residences are scheduled to open at the end of this year.