06/30/2015

Supportive Housing for Seniors

girardGroundbreaking for Girard Street GirardSenior Residences, an affordable, supportive senior building in the Northeast section of our nation’s capital, was celebrated On June 30 in Washington, DC. The new four-story, 25-unit building should be finished in 12 months, says Bo Menkiti, principal of The Menkiti Group. Menikiti and Dantes Partners are co-developers of the project.   Girard Street will dedicate 15 affordable housing apartments to seniors at or below 50% Area Median Income (AMI), and 10 supportive housing units to seniors who are chronically homeless at or below 30% AMI.

The building will have mostly one-bedroom units, a demonstration kitchen for cooking classes, an exercise/yoga studio, walking trails in a garden and a library. DC agencies will determine eligibility and tenant selection.

Our loan to Dantes Partners for the Girard Street project is our second to this developer. Since the first loan in 2013, CSH has discussed with Dantes’ staff how to underwrite supportive housing projects, advantages to including such units, and how to partner with service providers. Our technical and financial assistance were instrumental in helping to create the integrated Girard Street supportive housing seniors project.

Over the past few years CSH has lead several discussions about supportive housing for seniors. At the same time, Washington DC, a city that in general is facing an affordable housing crisis, has seen more and more seniors on the streets due to lack of accessible affordable and supportive housing. One of the DC Housing Authority’s priorities is to create more housing for seniors and the Girard Street project meets this need by providing affordable, quality housing with services – a model that CSH will track and promote as our work to help this population continues.

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