LeadingAge New York Adviser Winter Vol. 1 | Page 33

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populations so we’re looking forward to seeing
the result.
Would there be more efficiency if different
populations could be integrated?
You would definitely see efficiencies across the
board but you have to be a little mindful. For
example, the first senior housing project that
we completed, opening in 1992, had set aside
units that were for people with disabilities.
Representing a percentage of total units, six
out of 49 units were set aside for people with
broadly defined disabilities of any age. And
about two months before the building opened,
HUD changed their philosophy about the age
limit requiring all residents be 62 or older. This
new requirement was as a direct result of the
problems that were happening with integration
and younger people in senior living. So this
change was made in 1992 and has continued to
the present. Developers can have set aside units
for disabilities, but only for people who are age
62 or older. This has created a significant barrier.
What do you think the challenges are as you
move more into senior housing?
There is a real shortage of affordable senior
housing and funding is the biggest challenge to
creating more. The waitlist for the 19 People,
Inc. complexes is about 1,000 people of which
about 700 are non-duplicated numbers, meaning
not on multiple lists. When someone needs an
apartment, they don’t usually want to wait on
a waitlist for a couple of years. Our apartments
don’t turn over very quickly. Great locations and
the availability of case management services
help people age in place by providing access to
community resources. As a result, people are
staying and not having to leave as they require
more support. So, this is probably the biggest
issue we face on the housing side.
Housing is also the biggest nut to crack on the

disability side too. Once we can get a good roof
over someone’s head, then we have all sorts
of services that we can provide with the good
case manager. I think that’s essential to keeping
people in the community.
How do you fund your case manager?
HUD allows some of our units to fund it as part
of our service provision (services coordinator).
For people with disabilities it’s funded through
Medicaid. We also have a county contract for
senior outreach for people who don’t live in our
own senior complexes. So we’ve been successful
in figuring out ways to provide this service and
we have been fortunate to have found some
fabulous case managers/coordinators.
Do all of your buildings have access to case
management?
Yes, there are some great services here in
Western New York and, internally, we have our
health center and a Certified Home Care Agency
(CHHA), so we also get good referrals for those
services.
What are your plans for the next five to
10 years?
We are currently working on a housing project
funded through tax credits, both state and
federal. We actually have a lot of different
funding sources for the project and we hope
to be under construction in January. It’s a
complicated process that takes quite a bit to get
it going but we’d like to develop more using this
funding strategy.
I’d also like to expand our case management
services to the senior community. My social
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