Senior apartment complex gets emotional final OK

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

The unanimous vote was perfunctory but the emotions underlying the final approval for a long-awaited senior assisted living facility were palpable at a Key West City Commission meeting on June 21.

Commissioners gave the last required approval for the major development plan for a 108-unit facility named Poinciana Gardens, to be located at 1664 Dunlap Drive in Poinciana Plaza, after the planning board did the same in April. The groundbreaking is expected to take place in August, with the facility open to new residents in the spring of 2018.

“We’ve been working on this for 15 years. I cannot tell you the immense impact this will have on our senior community,” said Ed Swift, co-chair of the Florida Keys Assisted Care Coalition.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mayor Craig Cates. “It’s just incredible it’s finally going to happen.”

Although tasked by city commissioners back in 2013 to develop and build a housing complex specifically for low and moderate income senior citizens who need assistance with meals, housekeeping and non-major health issues, the push for the facility has been going on for the last decade and a half. Four local women; Lucie Adams, Nancy Johnson, Molly Shallow and Betty Behrens first had the idea of building a senior housing facility, teaming up with Swift and Joan Higgs to form the Keys Assisted Care Coalition. But, said Coalition Board Coordinator Sandy Higgs, the project has gone through so many delays that three of the four original women have died. And while Poinciana Gardens will fill an important need in the community, most of the moderate-income Coalition members – who helped raise $400,000 over the past 15 years to pay for project and property research – won’t be able to meet the income qualifications to live in the facility. Ironically, they make too much money, Higgs said.

“As wonderful as this [Poinciana Gardens approval] is, and it is truly wonderful, while we’re happy, we’re also sad. None of the members of the Coalition will qualify. Not a one,” Higgs said, adding, “We’re in the middle of another mass exodus now. I know of six families who are leaving. You can’t squeeze the middle class more than they’re already being squeezed.”

The project came tantalizing close to approval a few years ago when commissioners considered a proposal to build the apartment building on city-owned land in what will now be the Truman Waterfront Park. But the motion needed a two-third vote to move ahead, not a simple majority, and it failed.

Since then, finding a parcel of land for the project has become difficult. But the Key West Housing Authority, led by executive director Manual Castillo, Jr., carved out a section inside of Poinciana Plaza, located at Duck Avenue and 17th Street. The new three-story structure will replace an existing, four-unit apartment building on the property and will provide 108 apartments for an estimated 140 people. The first two floors will have 60 apartments for more independent seniors, with the third floor offering 48 units with assisted living services, which include more care and supervision for residents.

In addition, the new facility will have a “respite care” program, where 25 non-resident seniors can receive daycare during the day.

Local resident Rev. Randy Becker said that the increasingly high cost of living in Key West, plus the lack of social services for the elderly, has forced many seniors to move out of town. In addition to the experience and contributions made by these seniors, the “lore of the island” is increasingly being lost, he said.

“One of the dilemmas I see in this community is that when people get to a certain place in their lives, unless they have family structures to support them, they have to leave the island. And we become less of a multi-generational community of depth that we would like to be,” Becker told commissioners at their meeting.

The size of the independent and assisted apartment will range from 275 square feet for a studio apartment to 675 square feet for a two-bedroom unit. Rents will range from $450 to $2,300 per month for the independent apartments but additional fees and services could boost those rent figures to $750 to $4,000 per month for the assisted living units.

Construction is expected to take 20 months and the budget for the project is $21.5 million. The facility will be managed by Key West Senior Development, a non-profit company owned by American House Senior Living Communities, which operates more than 50 senior housing complexes in Michigan, Illinois and Florida.

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