Whittier : City to Aid Senior Housing

The City Council has agreed to finance $270,000 worth of improvements for a low- to moderate-income senior housing complex in Uptown Village.

Last summer, the council decided to loan the development wing of the Quaker church $500,000 to purchase a one-acre site and build a senior housing complex on Philadelphia Street, between Friends and Washington avenues. Because a $4.2-million federal housing grant will only pay for the land and the six-story complex, the developer, California Friends’ Homes, asked the city to use its loan to cover items that the government will not finance.

The council, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, agreed to a series of street improvements, parkway landscaping and utility hookups as well as the installation of a second elevator in the complex, balconies and patios, windows at the end of corridors, covered entrances and a block wall around the complex, city officials said.

Church officials hope local service groups will pay for about $41,000 in extras the council did not finance, including power-assisted front doors, electric security gates for the parking lot and trellises over outdoor recreation areas. Plans for the complex now go to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval. Ground breaking on the project is expected this fall.