                |
 |
1997 LICKING COUNTY HOUSING FORUM:
The Need for Elderly Housing
In interviewing a number of housing and related professionals in Licking County, we were surprised at the number of people who expressed a need for housing for the elderly. This is a surprise because a number of counties in Ohio have met their elderly housing needs already. Columbus MHA, for example, has a significant number of vacancies in the senior citizen apartments, and no waiting lists. Athens County and virtually all urban counties have similar situations. Ohio's largest non-profit equity fluid, which provides equity for low income housing tax credit projects, has listed a number of areas where they will not participate in such projects due to a lack of need.
Many developers would rather build and own housing for the elderly than for families, since maintenance costs are lower over time. Having found a area where there is an established need, they will virtually swarm into that area to satisfy that need. That is why we were surprised to hear that there still exists a significant need.
To establish this need, we called all of the elderly housing projects to find out the length of waiting lists for units in these projects. There are 17 senior housing projects in the county, 10 in Newark, and one each in Buckeye Lake, Heath, and Pataskala. Johnstown and Utica each have two complexes. The Chimes Terrace Apartments in Johnstown have the longest waiting list in terns of numbers, but the Patakala project applicants spend the most time on the waiting list There are no projects in the eastern half of the county.
We found that the number on these waiting lists ranged from 5 to 40 households, amounts that ranged in time from one week to 2 years, but averaged only 6 months. The High Rise, owned by the Licking Metropolitan Housing Authority, has bad vacancies, which, under current federal regulations, must be made available to disabled households as well as elderly, dependent upon their position on a waiting list. The owner of a new project, Washington Square, built in conjunction with the Licking County Aging Program, containing 42 units soon to come on line on the public square, indicates that there is no substantial need for such housing in the near future.
Therefore, we find that the need for additional housing units for the elderly cannot be sustained.
However, this is a temporary situation. The baby boom generation will begin reaching age 62 in ten years and will undoubtedly be in need of specialized housing and services.
|
|
|
