New style apartments to help seniors with limited housing options
LONDON: A quirky style community of seniors has emerged from a very humble beginning over 25 years ago.
Home is where Mary Lou Brady makes her quilts and seasonal items like tree skirts for her 13 great-grandchildren. For Clyde Hood, home is where he can work out on exercise equipment in his room and spend some time relaxing with his cat, Shadow.
For both, home is Heritage Oaks of Ocala, a tidy four-story, 72-apartment facility in southwest Ocala for people ages 62 and older who have limited incomes. The facility is operated by Goodwill Industries-Suncoast of St. Petersburg.
Heritage Oaks was constructed in 1994 and has served as a “Goodwill (Industries-Suncoast, Inc.) Affordable Apartment Community” since the doors opened.
The complex serves a particular need in Marion County, where more than 28% of the population is age 65 or older. Karla Grimsley, executive director of Interfaith Emergency Services in Ocala, said her agency refers clients “either homeless or about to become homeless” to Heritage Oaks of Ocala.
“(We are) very happy that there is a new opportunity for housing for this population,” she wrote in an email.
Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, Inc. operates additional apartment facilities in Pinellas Park, Tampa, Clearwater and Palm Harbor.
There are currently at least 16 apartments available in the Ocala building with as little as two weeks wait time to occupy.
“It’s my little house,” Brady said of her self-decorated apartment.
Brady, 85, has her sewing machine set up in the apartment and plenty of family portraits on display, including one of her daughter and her own 1954 high school graduation picture from Northeastern High School in Detroit.
She has been a resident of Heritage Oaks of Ocala for three years and feels the facility provides a good environment for her to “keep going.”
Hood, 65, has been at Heritage Oaks of Ocala for three years. Hood, who once worked with performing elephants at Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus at Circus World near Haines City, said if not for the Goodwill apartment community, he would “probably be homeless.”
Hood said before he came to Ocala he was living in Kentucky and was homeless for a time. He lived with family in Ocala before coming to Heritage Oaks of Ocala.
He first arrived on his Harley-Davidson 1000 motorcycle. He has since gotten an S-10 Chevrolet pickup.
Hood described the location, which is near Paddock Mall, Walmart, Publix and numerous medical offices, as “perfect” and he “gets along with everybody.”
“I love it,” Hood said about the facility.
The facility offers activities through a service coordinator like painting classes and guest speakers. The residents can also get assistance with HUD benefit information.
There is laundry equipment on premises and apartment and building maintenance is taken care of by staff members like Ray Antonio Williamson, who has been with the facility for 12 years.
Williamson has been known to sing a cheerful song as he goes about his work around the building.
There are currently about 50 residents in the building. The one-person income limit is $19,500; for married couples, it’s $22,250. Residents pay their own electric and cable TV bills.
The one-bedroom apartments measure 506 square feet. They are unfurnished, though refrigerator and stove are provided.
Each room has bathroom grab bars, emergency help pull cords in the bedroom and bathroom and easy-entry doorways. Wheelchair accessible rooms are available on each of the four floors.
Lisa Cameron, acting facility manager, said the smoke-free facility is for independent living residents. As for pets: Birds, cats and dogs up to 25 pounds are allowed.
Visitors are allowed to stay in residents’ apartments for 14 days.
There’s even a porch swing in front of the building for leisurely chats in the afternoon and a spacious green area behind the building.
Residents Soledad Cui, 84, and Henrietta Harris, 71, recently shared their thoughts about living at Heritage Oaks of Ocala.
Cui, a resident for six years, found the facility after a family online search and finds Heritage Oaks of Ocala “convenient and safe.”
Harris, a resident for three years, spoke of the activities offered by the staff including crafts and group dinners.
Meanwhile, Hood summed up what several residents expressed about their experience at Heritage Oaks of Ocala.
“Love it,” he said.
