National Church Residences, a nonprofit company dedicated to providing affordable housing for seniors, plans to bring a mixed-income project to Westerville.
The company will soon begin building the second part of its Dublin retirement community, known as Avondale. It plans similar developments for Westerville, though no construction schedule has been announced.
The Avondale project is a new concept for the company, since it includes units priced at market rates for seniors in the middle-income bracket, as well as units for those seniors who are receiving some type of housing assistance.
National Church Residences' target is retired firefighters or teachers, whose pensions are less than $40,000. At that level of income, the seniors are making too much to qualify for help with their housing, but are falling far short of the money needed to buy some of the upscale units that are often designed to appeal to this demographic. Some senior developments can have entry fees of $500,000.
Mark Ricketts, CEO of the company, vowed that they would never stop building affordable housing, nor would they stop trying to make a difference for middle-income people. He says there is a middle market that is underserved, or is being handled poorly by for-profit companies.
When the company begins construction in Westerville, officials could work with a brochure printing company to create a booklet for distribution to realtors, describing the housing.
