Construction Begins on Seniors’ Apartment

Salvation Army officials along with city and federal representatives celebrate the beginning of construction today of a Hollywood apartment building for senior citizens.

The $9-million Hollywood Silvercrest Residence will offer one-bedroom apartments to seniors with low and moderate incomes. The 99-unit building is scheduled to open in a year.

“There has been a great need for housing for seniors in the Hollywood community,” said Beverly Ventriss, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army, the project’s builders.

Funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and the Salvation Army, the building is the third to be built in the nonprofit organization’s Hollywood Boulevard complex.

The other buildings include a drop-in center and a 20-bed shelter for homeless and runaway teens.

“Hopefully, you are going to have on this one site older and younger people mingling,” Ventriss said.

The complex is also home to the Hawaii Theater, a 1,150-seat hall built in 1939 and now used as the Salvation Army’s Hollywood Corps Community Center.