Ordinance No. 19777 - Laserfiche WebLink

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site, aver 80 percent of these persons earn less than $1,2aO a month. Aver a quarter of them are disabled. Most currently `own their homes and face the upkeep and maintenance Costs that go with home Ownership. By making low-maintenance and low-rent housing in individual attached units, built to modern structural, energy, and accessibility standards, at the center of a tar a area of older . 5 housing, the Spr~ngwood project will offer a s~gn~cant ~ncent~ve to increased turnover of the older pausing stock. while these benefits cannot be quantified, they are both more likely and no Tess certain of impact than the hoped-for benefits of an unknown mix of industrial development which may or may not occur and which is not likely to occur within the next 20 years, if at all. A recent University of aregon study of older residents in a similar timber community, Coos Bay, determined that .aging residents of that community hoped to remain within their community, near the people and institutions with which they were familiar, It is reasonable to expect that the same would be true in Springfield. Most other residents will probably come from similar housing elsewhere in the Metro Area and central Lane County. At present, the lack of a feasible alternative far existing residents is keeping affordable family housing off the market. It is depriving younger families with need for the space in those older family homes of the opportunity to make the transition from renters to homeowners. Mast of these younger families are paying more for shelter in relation to income as the local and national economy shifts toward service, retail, and other lower- paying jobs, The bottleneck created by the dilemma of aging law-income homeowners has dramatic impacts on this segment of the housing market, which depends upon "beginner" homes and "fixer-uppers" to get its start. Meanwhile, thane "fixer-uppers" don't get fixed up. Affordable, low-maintenance, accessible housing without stairs ~a major source of life- threatening injury to older people}, with appropriate senior services nearby is an important factor in enabling our aging residents to continue in independent living. In the 1959 study, Caring for An Aging World, by Schwab and Jazwiecki ~1989~, the authors stress the importance of this factor: "Housing is an area which traditionally has not been thought of as an element of long-term-care public policy. However; both the afrordability and the availability of housing for the elderly plan a critical role in determining who can remain in the community and who will enter the institutional network," p 373 Emphasis added} The percentage of elderly is rapidly increasing in aregon and in the Metro Area. Logically, As the same authors paint out, '"The demand for elderly housing and alternative living arrangements should increase relative to the overall growth in the elderly population and their cpanging economic position." Springwood Plan Amendment Application Applicant's Proposed Findings March 20,1991 Draft Page 15