- Video shows ...
- Spark CDI, a nonprofit based in North Omaha, is working on a new senior housing project in downtown. The project will be housed in a once-abandoned hotel at 24th and Douglas, exclusively for seniors.
- The new development will offer a mix of 50% affordable senior housing and 50% market-rate apartments, linking seniors to city services via the nearby transit hub.
- Emerging Developer Opportunity: The project also provides an opportunity for emerging developers like Latish Henry to gain experience and overcome industry barriers.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Finding affordable housing is a challenge many people face. I'm Melissa Wright, in downtown, where finding safe and affordable housing for seniors is becoming a bigger challenge, and one organization is working to make this task easier for neighbors.
"Every month, we were like this is repetitive now," said Lee.
Hasani Lee is his dad's live-in aid. He says it took seven months to find his 74-year-old father a new place to live.
"They said they had a waiting list of a year, a wait list of three years, heard one say we have a waiting list, it'll probably will be about four years. I'm like, are you serious?" said Lee.
Lee says he called over 50 senior affordable housing apartments before giving up and going somewhere not specifically for seniors.
"It was really frustrating, especially when you were coming out of a situation that we were dealing with over there at Underwood and trying to get him to a stable point of living," said Lee.
Spark CDI, a nonprofit based in North Omaha, focuses on community development. Ryan ZimmerMas tells me this once-abandoned hotel off 24th and Douglas will be the organization's new project, and it will only be for seniors.
"So having a location where seniors can live affordable and market rate downtown, right on the streetcar is a really great opportunity to connect older adults with services throughout the city by being linked up with that transit hub," said ZimmerMas.
With the new project, they are also aiming to uplift an emerging developer. Latish Henry, new to the industry, says opportunities like this help with certain barriers.
"I want to become a developer, I have this broad idea of what a developer is, but there's so many pieces to being a developer," said Henry. "It's not just go out and find a lot and start building, right? You have to have studies that we didn't know that you had to have."
This new project, right in downtown, will offer 50% affordable senior housing and 50% market-rate apartments. Applications for emerging developerswanting to get experience on their resume will close on Friday at 1 p.m. In downtown, I'm Melissa Wright.
