Groundbreaking Held for Housing

Low-Income Elderly in Brandon

Joint Project of LSF & Apostles Lutheran

28 May 2008 - TW updated

Groundbreaking for Apostles Village, a joint project of Lutheran Services Florida (LSF) and Apostles Lutheran Church in Brandon, FL to provide housing for low-income elderly,  took place on Sun., May 25 at 1 p.m. The church is located at 200 Kingsway Rd.

Apostles Village will be a 55-unit apartment complex located adjacent to the church and near an existing community center. The area has extensive support services for senior citizens. Additionally, the new complex will assist residents with other necessary services such as homemaking, respite, adult day care, transportation, home delivered meals and social activities. The goal is to help the residents live and age with dignity.

The project comes as a result of years of joint planning by LSF and Apostles Lutheran Church that began with the results of a Senior Ministry Inventory that was conducted in Florida churches in 2004, according to LSF Director of Community Housing Elizabeth Von Werne, who is based in Miami.

“That inventory showed that housing for seniors was going to have to become a priority” in the state of Florida, she said.  As a result of that impetus, “the LSF Board of Directors acted on it.”  Von Werne credited the efforts of LSF's former CEO James Wells and former LSF Director of Community Housing Leigh Nations with making the Board's vision a reality.

An application for a $5.5 million grant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build affordable, subsidized housing for low-income elderly people in Hillsborough County was submitted and notice of the award was received in 2006, said Ms. Von Werne.

“We then formed our board with Apostles Lutheran Church, selected the contractor, secured the land and applied for supplemental funding during 2007,” she said. “We received the firm commitment in 2008 and are now working toward closing.”

Assisting in purchase of property adjacent to the church was a Hillsborough County Community Development Block Grant of $265,000. The supplemental funding of $935,000 came from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program to assist with the difference in construction costs from when the HUD grant was first applied for in 2005, Von Werne explained.

The new village of senior citizens will be quite an addition to the ministry of Apostles Lutheran Church, said Pastor Handlee Vige.

“Within the congregation at Apostles, excitement is building, and I’m very excited about it to see this dream come to fruition,” he stated. “In a little over a year we will have people living there, and it will be a blessing to them and a wonderful outreach to the community.”
 

OTHER SENIOR HOUSING PROJECTS

Lutheran Services Florida has been encouraging other Lutheran congregations in Florida to consider similar projects for providing housing to low-income elderly, as the need continues to rise in the state.

“Our role now is to be the convenor and facilitator as we match churches with potential developers, most of whom are Lutheran,” explained Ms. Von Werne. LSF recently convened just such a meeting in Tampa with four Lutheran congregations and five teams of developers, she said.

“We are blessed at LSF to have a new CEO and a new Vice President of Operations who both have extensive experience in senior housing,” she added.

President and CEO Sam Sipes began his work with LSF last September, and Vice President David Yarborough began March 1.

Churches having interest in building affordable housing for the low income elderly population in their area may contact Elizabeth Von Werne at 786-367-0052 or by email at bvonwerne@lsfnet.org. 

Lutheran Services Florida is a statewide, social services organization with more than 60 programs located across the state that assist at-risk children, the frail elderly, troubled youth and families in crisis, refugees and immigrants, homeless families, and victims of natural disasters.  LSF served more than 62,000 people in Florida in 2007.

 

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