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Deaf seniors may get high-tech digs
A housing community for deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors is being planned for Tempe, and the $25 million project would be among the largest of its kind in the country.
The project would provide 75 apartments and 50 owner-occupied condominiums for people age 55 and older.
But Apache ASL Trails, which still must be voted on by the Tempe City Council, is intended to be more than just housing. Support services would be woven in, positioning the site to become a statewide epicenter for the deaf senior community.
"Especially for deaf seniors, whose friends may pass, isolation is a terrible problem," said Carmen Green, deputy director of the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. "Regular senior centers can't always meet their needs because, most likely, no one else there knows how to sign, so it creates many lonely barriers for those deaf individuals."
Safely housing and serving deaf seniors takes creativity. The main form of communication inside Apache ASL Trails would be American Sign Language, augmented by design and technology.
Architects would use special interior and structural design to eliminate sight barriers.
There also are design and technology add-ons such as color-coded strobe lights that alert residents to ringing doorbells and telephones. Strobes also signal weather warnings, fires and other emergency announcements.
Apache ASL Trails' asset manager, Judy Leiterman, estimates those extras tack on about $8,000 per housing unit.
Community support for the $25 million Tempe concept already is under way.
Leaders from the Arizona Deaf Senior Citizens Coalition, the Valley Center of the Deaf and Tempe have pledged their backing. The Arizona Community Foundation donated $150,000 to help fund the project.
The project also won the right to use federal low-income housing tax credits to make the apartments more affordable.
Cardinal Capital Management Inc., a Wisconsin development company, intends to have residents living in the development as early as spring 2009.
Just more than a dozen states have similar facilities.
The plans are part of a burst of redevelopment along Tempe's Apache Boulevard segment of the new light-rail line.
The site is just east of Apache Boulevard's intersection with the Loop 101, giving it easy access to public transit.
The governor-appointed commission serves the estimated 500,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people who live in Arizona. One out of three seniors experiences hearing loss, the agency estimates.
A housing community for deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors is being planned for Tempe, and the $25 million project would be among the largest of its kind in the country.
The project would provide 75 apartments and 50 owner-occupied condominiums for people age 55 and older.
But Apache ASL Trails, which still must be voted on by the Tempe City Council, is intended to be more than just housing. Support services would be woven in, positioning the site to become a statewide epicenter for the deaf senior community.
"Especially for deaf seniors, whose friends may pass, isolation is a terrible problem," said Carmen Green, deputy director of the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. "Regular senior centers can't always meet their needs because, most likely, no one else there knows how to sign, so it creates many lonely barriers for those deaf individuals."
Safely housing and serving deaf seniors takes creativity. The main form of communication inside Apache ASL Trails would be American Sign Language, augmented by design and technology.
Architects would use special interior and structural design to eliminate sight barriers.
There also are design and technology add-ons such as color-coded strobe lights that alert residents to ringing doorbells and telephones. Strobes also signal weather warnings, fires and other emergency announcements.
Apache ASL Trails' asset manager, Judy Leiterman, estimates those extras tack on about $8,000 per housing unit.
Community support for the $25 million Tempe concept already is under way.
Leaders from the Arizona Deaf Senior Citizens Coalition, the Valley Center of the Deaf and Tempe have pledged their backing. The Arizona Community Foundation donated $150,000 to help fund the project.
The project also won the right to use federal low-income housing tax credits to make the apartments more affordable.
Cardinal Capital Management Inc., a Wisconsin development company, intends to have residents living in the development as early as spring 2009.
Just more than a dozen states have similar facilities.
The plans are part of a burst of redevelopment along Tempe's Apache Boulevard segment of the new light-rail line.
The site is just east of Apache Boulevard's intersection with the Loop 101, giving it easy access to public transit.
The governor-appointed commission serves the estimated 500,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people who live in Arizona. One out of three seniors experiences hearing loss, the agency estimates.
