Complex for Elderly Opens

A 241-unit senior-citizen apartment complex with 20% of its units reserved for low-income residents opened last week in Monrovia.

Heritage Park Monrovia is the first and largest of five complexes being built in a $57.5-million joint venture between Calmark Development Corp. and the nonprofit Corporate Fund for Housing.

Monthly rents for the low-income apartments, based on the tenants’ income, start at $380 for one-bedroom units and $427 for two-bedroom units. The maximum rent for the rest of the apartments is $525 for one-bedroom units and $670 for two-bedroom units.

Similar projects will be completed in Diamond Bar, La Verne, Whittier and Lakewood by next January, constituting 845 affordable housing units for seniors, according to Mario Guerra, spokesman for the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

SCAG was instrumental in the creation of the Corporate Fund for Housing with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant in 1984 to create more affordable housing in Southern California. Over the next 20 years, the county’s population of senior citizens is expected to more than double, according to SCAG projections.

Because it is nonprofit, the fund can issue tax-exempt bonds and finance the developments at a lower cost, said Project Manager Scott Kutner.

“The main benefit is that the fund owns the projects, and long-term affordability (of the apartments) is assured,” he said.