Affordable housing for disabled and seniors to continue at hotel
LONDON: The Covid experiment to co-house seniors and the disabled within a hotel precinct is set to continue.
The Anderson Hotel in San Luis Obispo will remain as affordable housing for vulnerable seniors and disabled adults after federal funding helped the agency managing the property acquire the building.
On Friday, Congressman Salud Carbajal announced that his office secured $2 million in federal funds to preserve affordable housing at the Anderson Hotel, located at 955 Monterey St. in downtown San Luis Obispo.
The $2 million allocation will be granted to the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO) so the agency can continue to manage the community, according to a news release.
HASLO will also use the money to make some essential upgrades to the historic building, which was built nearly 100 years ago in 1923.
Some of that funding will go toward seismic retrofitting and redoing the plumbing, electrical and windows.
“This building is 100 years old. It wasn’t built to the seismic standards of today,” said HASLO Executive Director Scott Smith.
In a report last year, residents at the Anderson Hotel described problems with old carpet and peeling paint.
In 1978, the hotel was refurbished and transitioned into apartments to house elderly and disabled residents, according to a past Tribune report.
It has been an affordable housing community for vulnerable residents for the past four decades.
The $2 million deal Carbajal secured also includes 68 vouchers to make each unit at the Anderson Hotel permanently affordable for the residents.
The average resident is 70 years old and lives on a fixed income of $1,000, according to a description of the project.
The deed restriction will ensure that each residents only pays 30% of their income on rent, with the remainder of the balance paid by HASLO and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency for the next 55 years, according to a description of the project.
