Miss-Delectable
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http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051123/NEWS01/511230328/1002
Advocates for the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton are hoping an idea to bring affordable housing to deaf Virginia seniors could help save their school as the push to consolidate the two state campuses rages on.
The idea comes from Ben Jackson, a Georgia developer and president of Deaf Senior Housing, whose company has successfully established public-private partnerships to build deaf housing in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. All of the developments are located near state schools for the deaf — a purposeful move designed to give residents access to an established deaf community and to facilitate mentoring and volunteer programs between deaf residents and local school children.
Jackson recently presented his model at a housing conference in Richmond. Rachel Bavister, president of the Virginia Association for the Deaf, said that she is attempting to contact Gov.-elect Tim Kaine and local legislators to bolster support for the housing development and VSDB-Staunton.
Kaine has not yet taken a position about where a consolidated VSDB might be located. The next General Assembly will have to decide how to proceed after estimates for a proposed consolidated campus at one of four sites — including Staunton and Hampton — all came in more than $20 million over the $61.5 million budget that state legislators set for that project.
"What the governor-elect would like to do is review those proposals and work with the legislature to find a bipartisan solution that will continue to provide high-quality service to this community of students," said Kaine's communications director, Delacey Skinner.
Bavister, a former VSDB-Staunton teacher and principal, said Jackson's housing proposal and its implications for the Staunton campus could be a huge boon for the local deaf community.
The proposal is still in its early stages. Jackson has filed an initial request for funding with the Virginia Housing Development Authority, but he has not yet spoken with city officials in Staunton. He's seeking business partners in Virginia, and he's surveying deaf Virginians to help determine statewide interest in the project. He plans to tour potential sites for the development in December with representatives from the VHDA, the VAD and the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Regardless of VSDB-Staunton's future, Jackson said he would pursue developing a housing complex for deaf residents in Staunton.
"Staunton is the center of deaf culture for Virginia and will always be where the older deaf who attended the school will look upon fondly," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is where many would want to live if there were a community designed with specific adaptive equipment ..."
The proposed complex would include between 40-60 units and be designed for mixed use — open to families, seniors and low-income residents, Jackson said. However, the community initially would be marketed to VSDB alumni.
"There is a genuine need for such housing since our deaf citizens get older, too, and sadly have no access to good communication in places that assist the elderly," former VSDB teacher Fred Yates, 79, wrote in an e-mail. "Some of the elderly deaf have gone to their reward in local places where they were mostly devoid of communication."
Avra Priola, outreach coordinator for the deaf and hard of hearing at the DisAbility Resource Center in Fredericksburg, said 50 percent of the deaf Virginians she's contacted so far for a survey on housing accessibility have had some difficulty with finding and obtaining housing. Priola is a member of the Virginia Housing Development Authority's committee on people with disabilities, and she organized the presentations on housing accessibility for the deaf at the Richmond conference earlier this month.
"We're just laying the seed right now, and we want to see these seeds grow, because there's so much lack of awareness for deaf and hard-of-hearing people," she said.
Advocates for the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton are hoping an idea to bring affordable housing to deaf Virginia seniors could help save their school as the push to consolidate the two state campuses rages on.
The idea comes from Ben Jackson, a Georgia developer and president of Deaf Senior Housing, whose company has successfully established public-private partnerships to build deaf housing in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. All of the developments are located near state schools for the deaf — a purposeful move designed to give residents access to an established deaf community and to facilitate mentoring and volunteer programs between deaf residents and local school children.
Jackson recently presented his model at a housing conference in Richmond. Rachel Bavister, president of the Virginia Association for the Deaf, said that she is attempting to contact Gov.-elect Tim Kaine and local legislators to bolster support for the housing development and VSDB-Staunton.
Kaine has not yet taken a position about where a consolidated VSDB might be located. The next General Assembly will have to decide how to proceed after estimates for a proposed consolidated campus at one of four sites — including Staunton and Hampton — all came in more than $20 million over the $61.5 million budget that state legislators set for that project.
"What the governor-elect would like to do is review those proposals and work with the legislature to find a bipartisan solution that will continue to provide high-quality service to this community of students," said Kaine's communications director, Delacey Skinner.
Bavister, a former VSDB-Staunton teacher and principal, said Jackson's housing proposal and its implications for the Staunton campus could be a huge boon for the local deaf community.
The proposal is still in its early stages. Jackson has filed an initial request for funding with the Virginia Housing Development Authority, but he has not yet spoken with city officials in Staunton. He's seeking business partners in Virginia, and he's surveying deaf Virginians to help determine statewide interest in the project. He plans to tour potential sites for the development in December with representatives from the VHDA, the VAD and the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Regardless of VSDB-Staunton's future, Jackson said he would pursue developing a housing complex for deaf residents in Staunton.
"Staunton is the center of deaf culture for Virginia and will always be where the older deaf who attended the school will look upon fondly," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is where many would want to live if there were a community designed with specific adaptive equipment ..."
The proposed complex would include between 40-60 units and be designed for mixed use — open to families, seniors and low-income residents, Jackson said. However, the community initially would be marketed to VSDB alumni.
"There is a genuine need for such housing since our deaf citizens get older, too, and sadly have no access to good communication in places that assist the elderly," former VSDB teacher Fred Yates, 79, wrote in an e-mail. "Some of the elderly deaf have gone to their reward in local places where they were mostly devoid of communication."
Avra Priola, outreach coordinator for the deaf and hard of hearing at the DisAbility Resource Center in Fredericksburg, said 50 percent of the deaf Virginians she's contacted so far for a survey on housing accessibility have had some difficulty with finding and obtaining housing. Priola is a member of the Virginia Housing Development Authority's committee on people with disabilities, and she organized the presentations on housing accessibility for the deaf at the Richmond conference earlier this month.
"We're just laying the seed right now, and we want to see these seeds grow, because there's so much lack of awareness for deaf and hard-of-hearing people," she said.
