Housing Study Focuses Renewed Attention on Senior Citizen Project
A city report that details housing needs among Glendale’s poor and elderly residents may help revive a 3-year-old proposal by the Glendale Soroptimist Club to build a low- and moderate-income housing project for seniors on city-owned land.
The report, released Tuesday, found that demand for such housing in Glendale far exceeds supply. About 2,000 Glendale residents live in some form of low-cost, city-subsidized housing, but 4,000 more would qualify if such programs were widely available, according to the study.
The Soroptimist Club hopes to receive $530,000 in funding from the Glendale Redevelopment Agency to help build a 51-unit development at Louise Street and Monterey Road that could house up to 75 seniors. The club wants to take advantage of a state law that requires redevelopment agencies to set aside 20% of their revenues for low- and moderate-income housing. Glendale has already pledged to donate the land.
City officials requested the report three months ago, when the council first considered deferring for 10 years the spending of about $900,000 in Redevelopment Agency funds for such housing. The agency expects to receive $5 million in property tax revenues in 1985-86.
California law allows redevelopment agencies to defer those housing subsidies for up to 10 years to fulfill existing obligations. Glendale officials say they need to pay off almost $50 million in debts.
The Glendale City Council, meeting as the Redevelopment Agency, voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to begin the legal procedure that will allow it to defer those funds.
But the agency also directed its staff to look into what other funds might be available to pay for the Soroptimist project. Earlier attempts to secure funding from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development proved unsuccessful.
Council members say they recognize that elderly Glendale residents need subsidized housing. But they say the city also has commitments to build a major hotel, a public parking garage and numerous high-rise office buildings downtown--all of which are expected to generate tax revenues for the city.
On Tuesday, Mayor Larry Zarian said Glendale is in good financial health because of redevelopment agency projects such as the Glendale Galleria. Zarian said that if the city shifted too much of its redevelopment money to projects such as low- and medium-income housing, funding for business construction might be threatened.
Zarian’s comments followed a public hearing at which seven people, including representatives of the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Glendale Presbyterian Church, urged the Redevelopment Agency not to defer the spending. Councilman John F. Day, the sole dissenter in the agency’s vote, echoed similar sentiments.
Lengthy Waiting Lists
Since 1978, the city has spent about $9 million on low- and moderate-income housing projects. But from 1,000 to 1,500 seniors remain on waiting lists, said Susan Shick, Redevelopment Agency deputy executive director.
About 21% of Glendale’s 150,000 residents are 60 or over, according to the 1980 census. The city has the fourth largest elderly population in Los Angeles County.
Shick said the staff report focused on low-income housing requirements for the elderly because “our perception is that’s where the greatest need is.”
Councilman Carl Raggio said the city staff is working on a report that will outline low- and moderate-income housing needs for the city’s overall population, which in recent years has included a growing population of poor Latinos.
