Apartments to benefit low-income seniors with low rents
MELBOURNE: A trend to building apartments to benefit low income seniors with minimal rent has started to emerge.
Pinnacle at Peacefield, which will be on Adams Street, west of South Dixie Highway, will have 120 rental apartments for people age 62 and older.
Construction will be complete early next year, said Pinnacle Housing Group, the developer.
The developer will start accepting applications sometime this fall. There will be income eligibility requirements. (A family of two, for example, cannot earn more than $38,820.) There also will be a credit and background check. Pinnacle’s marketing efforts will aim for Hollywood residents who want to stay, or “age in place,” within the city.
The rents will range from:
— $380 to $835 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom residence.
— $456 to $1,022 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence.
“Seniors have a challenge finding affordable housing as anyone else,” said Clay Milan, Hollywood’s community development manager. “Most or many of them are retired and on fixed income [and] while their income is what it is, the cost of housing keeps rising.”
City statistics show 29 percent of homeowners and 57 percent of renters in Hollywood are “cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their household income on housing.
“It’s particularly acute in South Florida — rents are so high,” Milan said. “There’s a need for rental housing in these income categories” that Pinnacle at Peacefield will provide.
Pinnacle at Peacefield is named after the Old House at Peace field, the historic 1731 home in Massachusetts owned by the family of Founding Father John Adams.
The project in Hollywood consists of three buildings, all of which are three stories and have an elevator.
Each building will have its own set of amenities, including a lounge, computer center, outdoor patio, and fitness facility. There will be daily resident assurance check-in, computer training, and daily on-site supervised activities designed to promote wellness and education.
The country has a “rapidly aging baby-boomer population and Hollywood is no different,” said Timothy Wheat, the regional vice president for Pinnacle Housing Group. This will be “high-quality senior housing with good amenities with low cost of living.”
The land parcels — which had been assembled by the city of Hollywood and the Hollywood Community Redevelopment Agency — closed in December for $2.1 million.
Rundown apartment complexes were on the site until the city and CRA bought it more than a decade ago in order to demolish the buildings. Hollywood and the CRA paid $11.7 million to cover the land purchase, demolition and relocation costs for tenants of the apartment building.
