Program Links Disabled, Agencies

The West Hollywood Community Housing Corp. has announced the creation of a new program that will link disabled tenants who are unable to care for themselves with social-service agencies.

The Enhanced Management Program will be aimed at low-income residents of the housing corporation’s properties, particularly those who are elderly or who have acquired immune deficiency syndrome. A resident-services coordinator will work with property managers at each of five buildings to link tenants with agencies that provide case management, medical care, meals, housekeeping and psychological counseling, among other things.

The housing corporation, a nonprofit developer, operates 75 low-income units and expects to have 120 units by the end of 1993. The average rent is below $300 a month. The corporation’s latest project, a 22-unit building on Harper Avenue, will be occupied primarily by people with AIDS when it opens next June.

Paul Zimmerman, the organization’s executive director, said one purpose of the Enhanced Management Program is to keep the corporation’s properties in good shape.

“When people lose the ability to keep an apartment, the economic and social life of the building suffers,” he said. “It is important not only to provide low rents and services for residents but also to protect the units they live in.”

The program, which has received a $20,000 grant from Citibank, will begin next summer. Its $50,000 annual cost will be covered by private funding and by developer fees, Zimmerman said.