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Deaf get priced out of complex | Spartanburg, South Carolina | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal
A "miscommunication" led to disappointment for Spartanburg's deaf senior citizen community when it recently discovered that the new Cedar Springs Place apartment complex had an income requirement that excludes many deaf senior citizens who were counting on it to be the first complex in the state they could call their own.
At a meeting with the Spartanburg and Aiken Housing Authorities Thursday at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind, Richard Price and about 25 members of the deaf senior community expressed their displeasure at what they perceived as being shut out of a project they helped spearhead.
Price, who led the effort to establish a senior deaf community near the SCSDB, said his group did all the groundwork in fundraising and securing state funding for Cedar Springs - which is across from the school - and was shocked to read in an Aug. 14 Herald-Journal article that low-income seniors who aren't deaf were ready to move in.
"All the discussion was about a retirement center for the deaf senior citizens. It was never stated in the first place that this was going to be a low-income place for the general public," Price, a member of the Spartanburg Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter. "So now we've got deaf senior citizens who planned to move in there and now they can't, and we feel like we've lost everything."
But Reggie Barner, CEO of the Community Development & Improvement Corp., the nonprofit arm of the Aiken Housing Authority that developed the site in a partnership with the Spartanburg Housing Authority, said the plan all along called for a low-income facility because of federal regulations for the state tax credit program that is funding Cedar Springs. He also said his organization could not restrict tenancy to one specific group.
The goal, he added, was and still is to put applications for tenancy from deaf seniors at the top of the waiting list. But when Melissa Evans, director of multifamily housing who is managing the leasing for SHA, mailed out applications and received only six back from deaf residents, the housing authority began moving in qualified seniors from the general public.
"I personally apologize for any confusion that has been caused over this," Barner told the deaf contingent at Thursday's meeting. "Our intent all along has been to work with you all.
"We don't control the funding source. The funding source for this program is based on people's income. That's what was discussed when we all went to Columbia and asked state housing to fund this development. Nothing has changed from what we asked for and what we received."
Feeling left out
While the deaf seniors' sentiment went from anger to appreciation after Barner's explanation, it still left a gaping hole for those who believed they would have the first facility of its kind in the state.
With the tax credit program, only individuals earning $19,200 a year or less and couples earning $21,950 or less can qualify.
"I understand clearly what you're saying to us, but right now there are so many deaf senior citizens whose incomes are slightly over that line that you just drew. Where do they live?" Clara Gantes, executive director of the Columbia-based S.C. Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter.
"They're isolated, and it destroys their identity as a deaf person. And what we're showing today is our disappointment that we can't move into a place where we can communicate with other deaf individuals," Gantes said. "There's no place in South Carolina for deaf seniors to go, and this was their only dream."
Barner's response was twofold: First, to work together to identify as many qualified deaf seniors as possible to move them in to Cedar Springs, and then pursue other avenues for future facilities that would include those above the stated income levels.
To address the first point, Evans said she was immediately suspending the processing of any non-deaf seniors' applications and urged any qualified deaf seniors to come by her office and fill out the paperwork.
Evans said only 16 of the 48 units had been leased, and that she hoped the remaining ones would be occupied by the deaf seniors. "We're in this together," she said. "We want to help. But this has to happen now. In three weeks, I won't have those apartments."
Evans, who is taking sign-language lessons at SCSDB, said she will have interpreters on hand to work with anyone who comes to her office to help fill out the applications.
Additional plans
To address the second point, Barner and Bill Faulkenberry, SHA's interim executive director, stressed that Cedar Springs is just phase one of multiple developments planned to target the deaf and the blind.
Barner said he is working with another statewide organization on a potential new facility on 80 acres of donated land in Conway, while Faulkenberry added that the SHA owns 18 undeveloped acres at the rear of the Cedar Springs site and that funding for development of a homeownership community targeting SCSDB alumni is being explored.
Faulkenberry said he regrets what happened with the current apartments.
"My mother always told me that no good deed goes unpunished," he said. "We went into this with the best of intentions, with a shared common goal and vision, and we sincerely apologize for the miscommunication."
A "miscommunication" led to disappointment for Spartanburg's deaf senior citizen community when it recently discovered that the new Cedar Springs Place apartment complex had an income requirement that excludes many deaf senior citizens who were counting on it to be the first complex in the state they could call their own.
At a meeting with the Spartanburg and Aiken Housing Authorities Thursday at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind, Richard Price and about 25 members of the deaf senior community expressed their displeasure at what they perceived as being shut out of a project they helped spearhead.
Price, who led the effort to establish a senior deaf community near the SCSDB, said his group did all the groundwork in fundraising and securing state funding for Cedar Springs - which is across from the school - and was shocked to read in an Aug. 14 Herald-Journal article that low-income seniors who aren't deaf were ready to move in.
"All the discussion was about a retirement center for the deaf senior citizens. It was never stated in the first place that this was going to be a low-income place for the general public," Price, a member of the Spartanburg Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter. "So now we've got deaf senior citizens who planned to move in there and now they can't, and we feel like we've lost everything."
But Reggie Barner, CEO of the Community Development & Improvement Corp., the nonprofit arm of the Aiken Housing Authority that developed the site in a partnership with the Spartanburg Housing Authority, said the plan all along called for a low-income facility because of federal regulations for the state tax credit program that is funding Cedar Springs. He also said his organization could not restrict tenancy to one specific group.
The goal, he added, was and still is to put applications for tenancy from deaf seniors at the top of the waiting list. But when Melissa Evans, director of multifamily housing who is managing the leasing for SHA, mailed out applications and received only six back from deaf residents, the housing authority began moving in qualified seniors from the general public.
"I personally apologize for any confusion that has been caused over this," Barner told the deaf contingent at Thursday's meeting. "Our intent all along has been to work with you all.
"We don't control the funding source. The funding source for this program is based on people's income. That's what was discussed when we all went to Columbia and asked state housing to fund this development. Nothing has changed from what we asked for and what we received."
Feeling left out
While the deaf seniors' sentiment went from anger to appreciation after Barner's explanation, it still left a gaping hole for those who believed they would have the first facility of its kind in the state.
With the tax credit program, only individuals earning $19,200 a year or less and couples earning $21,950 or less can qualify.
"I understand clearly what you're saying to us, but right now there are so many deaf senior citizens whose incomes are slightly over that line that you just drew. Where do they live?" Clara Gantes, executive director of the Columbia-based S.C. Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter.
"They're isolated, and it destroys their identity as a deaf person. And what we're showing today is our disappointment that we can't move into a place where we can communicate with other deaf individuals," Gantes said. "There's no place in South Carolina for deaf seniors to go, and this was their only dream."
Barner's response was twofold: First, to work together to identify as many qualified deaf seniors as possible to move them in to Cedar Springs, and then pursue other avenues for future facilities that would include those above the stated income levels.
To address the first point, Evans said she was immediately suspending the processing of any non-deaf seniors' applications and urged any qualified deaf seniors to come by her office and fill out the paperwork.
Evans said only 16 of the 48 units had been leased, and that she hoped the remaining ones would be occupied by the deaf seniors. "We're in this together," she said. "We want to help. But this has to happen now. In three weeks, I won't have those apartments."
Evans, who is taking sign-language lessons at SCSDB, said she will have interpreters on hand to work with anyone who comes to her office to help fill out the applications.
Additional plans
To address the second point, Barner and Bill Faulkenberry, SHA's interim executive director, stressed that Cedar Springs is just phase one of multiple developments planned to target the deaf and the blind.
Barner said he is working with another statewide organization on a potential new facility on 80 acres of donated land in Conway, while Faulkenberry added that the SHA owns 18 undeveloped acres at the rear of the Cedar Springs site and that funding for development of a homeownership community targeting SCSDB alumni is being explored.
Faulkenberry said he regrets what happened with the current apartments.
"My mother always told me that no good deed goes unpunished," he said. "We went into this with the best of intentions, with a shared common goal and vision, and we sincerely apologize for the miscommunication."