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Affordable housing project to aid soaring senior population
November 4, 2006
West Sacramento, Calif. — Statistics concerning the graying of America are startling — every seven seconds a “Baby Boomer” turns 50; six years from now, the Baby Boom generation will begin to turn 65; and in that same year; the number of Americans turning 65 daily will jump from about 6,000 today to 10,000.
Perhaps nowhere in Hawaii is this trend more evident than in Hilo where 39 percent of the island’s seniors currently reside. Overwhelmingly, these seniors tend to have incomes far below the area median income and subsequently struggle to pay for even the most basic of needs. In fact, the area is home to nearly 4,000 single and two-person senior households with incomes of less than $25,000.
As housing prices in Hawaii continue to escalate, the need for affordable senior housing has spiraled, with scores of older island residents currently on waiting lists for the 218 affordable senior housing units available in the South Hilo area.
The Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation (HICDC) hopes to soon alleviate at least some of Hilo’s affordable senior housing shortfall with its planned Kinoole Senior residence project.
HICDC recently received a $1.6 million loan from Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) for predevelopment and construction of the planned affordable senior residence that will include 30 one-bedroom 540 square foot units housed in a three-story structure in the South Hilo district.
The facility will also include common areas such as an office, laundry, activity room, kitchen, lounge and lanais on the second and third levels. The building will include two elevators.
Kinoole Senior residence will be built on a one-acre parcel of land leased from the County of Hawaii for $10 per year. Ground for the project was broken in July and construction is expected to be completed by early 2007.
“RCAC is pleased to be able to make this important loan to an organization as strong and dedicated as Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation,” said Mike Flanagan, director of RCAC’s Loan Fund. “The need for affordable senior housing in this area is great and we’re proud to be a part of helping the senior citizens of Hilo.”
The Kinoole Senior Residences project will bring to five the number of senior housing projects initiated by HICDC. All of the residences aim to meet the groups stated mission of promoting “better living conditions for low and moderate income families residing in the County of Hawaii.”
HICDC will use a variety of other financing sources to complete the Kinoole project, including the State of Hawaii Rental Assistance Revolving Fund, the County of Hilo HOME (Home Investment Partnership) program, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and federal low income housing tax credits that will be used to attract a private equity investor.
Total cost of the project is expected to be just over $10 million.
Headquartered in West Sacramento, California, and serving 13 Western states, RCAC is a nonprofit agency providing technical assistance and training to rural communities seeking to develop a wide range of local services including, among other things, community facilities, affordable housing and water treatment facilities. The organization operates a loan fund with $50 million in lending capital that provides low interest loans and grants to further these communities’ goals. RCAC has field offices in Hilo and Honolulu.
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