Mother and Daughter Team Up To Tackle Lack Of Affordable Housing For Senior Citizens in Nashville

Stacks of furniture and cardboard boxes crowd 71-year-old Frances Jones' new apartment in Madison. It is the same price as her old one in the North Park Village senior citizen community, but far less comfortable and half the size.

Jones told WZTV her former home was convenient and neighborly and people there cared about each other. The property was sold, however, to make way for new development, forcing Jones and her neighbors to leave the senior independent living community.

Jones said that she and her elderly neighbors had to scramble to find new homes within their modest budgets as they were given a notice of just 60 days. Many senior citizens in Nashville like Jones live on fixed incomes, which often meet demands of rising rent prices and inflation.

AWAKE Nashville wants to find affordable living options for seniors

Jones said that she worked 30 and 40 years out here for this little money, and then when she got up to get that little money, it ain't nothing. Jones added that she misses her old apartment, and especially her neighbors who became more like family to her. She said that they had a lot of love.

Advocates with AWAKE Nashville said that finding affordable independent living options for senior citizens in the city is a growing problem. The mother and daughter duo who started this organization realized firsthand the problem, when their mother and grandmother was displaced from the same senior community that housed Jones.

AWAKE co-founder Karen Holden said that they understand development is going to happen, and that development is a part of growth. But what they don't want is for the development to leave out the most important fabric of their community, the foundation of their community, their seniors.

Holden and her daughter Danielle Cotton said that the affordable housing gap for seniors boils down to three issues, namely: availability, accessibility, and affordability. Many senior citizens can't apply for apartments because their social security checks do not meet the income requirements that many companies have in place, making most units unaffordable to them.

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New solutions needed for affordable senior living

There is a lack of affordable housing, especially those that is geared toward senior citizens, which impacts their availability. And of those housing units that are available and affordable, many senior citizens lack accessibility in finding those particular places.

Holden said that most of the senior citizens did not have access to Wi Fi, to computers, and to information regarding its availability. AWAKE has partnered with a local real estate company to come up with new solutions for independent senior living that is affordable.

The groups are working on a civic participation model that aims to build community support by developing affordable independent senior housing solutions. They are also calling on local leaders and the community to help them in their mission.

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