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NORTH HOLLYWOOD : HUD Grant Awarded for Seniors’ Complex

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A Valley Jewish organization has been awarded a federal grant worth more than $7 million--the second largest of its kind given in California this year--to construct a housing complex for low-income seniors.

The Tarzana Lodge of B’nai B’rith received the grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of an annual housing program for the elderly.

The group plans to use the $7,032,700 grant for a 91-unit apartment complex, to be built next year near the intersection of Tujunga Boulevard and Otsego Street in North Hollywood, where many of the lodge members live.

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“We’ve been trying for seven years” to get a HUD grant, said lodge spokesman Sy Braverman.

Nicolas Retsinas, HUD assistant secretary for housing, said the agency funds only about one in eight applicants each year through the program, known as Section 202.

News of the long-sought grant was apparently overwhelming enough to land Tarzana Lodge President Milton Bleaman in the hospital after he got word of it Sept. 8.

“He got so excited about it he had a slight heart attack,” Braverman said. Bleaman was still hospitalized in good condition Monday.

Created by the Housing Act of 1959, Section 202 provides capital to nonprofit groups for developing rental housing and support services for the elderly.

The idea is “not just to give seniors shelter, but give them social services, too,” Braverman said, including health and recreation programs at the apartment complexes to help residents live as independently as possible.

The B’nai B’rith lodge was one of 15 California groups--seven of which are in Los Angeles--to receive funds this year, totaling nearly $83 million statewide. The Chinese Community Housing Corp. of San Francisco received $7,627,600, the largest single grant.

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In all, more than $499 million was disbursed to organizations in 40 states and Puerto Rico.

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