 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Seniors apartments set to rise
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer
NEW PORT RICHEY -- More than two years after a long-shot gamble came in, the West Pasco chapter of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association will ceremonially break ground today on apartments for low income seniors. In 2000, the AHEPA chapter put up $15,000 of its own money on the hopes of getting a $3.2-million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The group hoped to use the money to build a 50-unit apartment for seniors who earn less than $15,000 a year. In September 2000, the group was told it was getting the money. But it had seen two years of delays before finally receiving the funds on Dec. 11, said Thomas Anastassiou, president of the west Pasco AHEPA chapter. "A good Christmas present," Anastassiou said. Anastassiou said his group hopes to have the first phase of the apartments built by fall. And, he said, if those fill up quickly, there might be enough money to build another 40 units on the more than four acres of land the chapter bought. Bulldozers are working on the site, Anastassiou said, and the ceremonial groundbreaking is at 10 a.m. at 6705 Rowan Road. Anastassiou thinks the apartments will be "packed in six months." Each time word of the apartments gets in a newspaper, Anastassiou gets dozens of phone calls. But the group hasn't started taking applications. In fact, it doesn't even know how much it is going to charge for rent. Anastassiou said he hopes to know by Easter. AHEPA, a national organization started in the 1920s as a club for Greeks, has in the past 20 years branched out into building low-income housing for the elderly. The organization operates nearly 50 projects in 17 states. The grant financed construction of the apartments, already titled the AHEPA West Pasco Chapter No. 489 Apartments, and it also will pay for rent subsidies. Residents, in the first five years of the project, will pay 30 percent of the actual cost of their monthly rent, according to HUD. HUD requires that anyone living in the apartment complex be over age 62 and classified as "very low income," which means their income is less than half of the area median. The exact income cutoff figure has yet to be determined, but it will be around $15,000 a year. The apartment, which will sit on 4.5 acres, will include a large cafeteria, a community room, a library and other amenities. "There is no place like this" in west Pasco, Anastassiou said. -- Matthew Waite's e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com .
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
