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LONDON: More than 100 affordable homes for seniors are slated to be built in what the developer calls a downtown “arts colony”, according to proposals filed recently with city planners.

Milestone Arts Colony, or MAC, is the working title for the project, which is expected to sprout at sites with addresses ranging from 934 through 948 E. Santa Clara St. in San Jose, city documents show.

An estimated 103 units would be built as part of the six-story project, according to the proposal submitted by Milestone Housing Group, which is teaming up with Allied Housing to develop the complex.

“Units will be restricted to residents aged 55 and older,” Milestone stated in its proposal.

Among the 103 units will be 52 permanent supportive residences to house formerly homeless residents, the planning documents state. The residencies for these units will be arranged through the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Services.

“There will be a mix of studio and one-bedroom units with roughly 60% of the units as studios and 40% one-bedrooms,” Milestone Housing Group stated in its proposal.

The developers also envision a wide-ranging mix of amenities for the residents, focused on the arts.

“Our strategy is to collaborate with the Roosevelt Community Center and a local non-profit artist group to provide creative arts classes related to painting, watercolor, and color pen and pencil design within our ground floor amenity space,” Milestone stated in the proposal.

Additional arts programs might become available, according to the planning files.

“We will continue to work with our outreach partners to collaborate on additional programming that will provide, as appropriate, art therapy for those residents suffering from mental health issues,” Milestone stated in the project documents.

Considerable amenities are expected to be part of the project in addition to the art-oriented activities. These amenities will be located in the common areas of the project’s ground floor.

“Project amenities will include a business center, conference room, property management and resident service offices, community room, a common area kitchen and food pantry for our food distribution program, along with a mail room with private parcel lockers,” the planning documents state.

Residents also will have access to a computer room as well as job training tools such as iPads.

The next major steps will include getting final city approval as well as obtaining an array of financing to bankroll construction and completion of the affordable housing and arts-oriented complex. The developers intend to pursue city, county and state financing for the project.

“With the continued rise of homelessness, projects such as the Milestone Arts Colony will assist in tackling this crisis, focusing on the homeless senior population,” Milestone stated in the planning documents. “In addition, the MAC will provide additional much-needed housing for extremely low-income and very low-income senior households.”