Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/aug05/351300.asp
When someone knocks on Carol Comp's door, it's up to her dog to let her know company is calling.
Comp is deaf, so knocks and doorbells and smoke detectors go unheard at her West Allis duplex.
But next month, Comp will move to Water Tower View, an unusual apartment building that will open Sept. 22 in Greenfield. It will be among just a handful of housing developments nationwide designed to meet the special needs of residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Water Tower View's 43 apartments will include video phones, doorbells with flashing lights and other features that allow elderly deaf people to live independently. Comp, who will be Water Tower View's on-site manager, is eager to move into her new home - where sign language conversations will be the rule, not the exception.
"All of my (current) neighbors are hearing, and we only say 'Hello,' " Comp said.
At Water Tower View, Comp says in an e-mail, "There will always be a good and lengthy conversation among us. I will never be lonely."
Water Tower View, 3983 S. Prairie Hill Lane, will be Wisconsin's only apartment community developed for older people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It will be among just 14 such complexes nationwide, said Judy Leiterman of Cardinal Capital Management Inc. in Milwaukee, Water Tower View's property management firm.
"It's a market that needs to be served," Leiterman said.
As deaf people age and retire, they often find themselves living in isolated conditions, especially when a spouse dies, she said. Some live in nursing homes, despite being physically and mentally fit, because family members are concerned about their safety, Leiterman said.
Water Tower View will create a community for seniors who are deaf or hard of hearing, Leiterman said. She said two-thirds of the apartments have already been leased, mainly to people from southeastern Wisconsin. But the residents include people from northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Florida, she said.
"The word is out (among deaf people) that there's an opportunity to live independently," Leiterman said.
The videophones in the one- and two-bedroom apartments will let residents use sign language in their telephone conversations. Water Tower View's secure entrance also will have a videophone so visitors can contact residents by using sign language.
Other features include annunciator panels in Water Tower View's hallways and apartments that boost the effectiveness of hearing aids. The apartments also have strobe lights that flash different colors to indicate the sounds of doorbells, telephones and fire alarms.
The building was designed by AG Architecture Inc. of Wauwatosa and John Dickinson, a special-needs architect who is deaf, of Winter & Co. of Boulder, Colo. The apartments are within a larger senior housing development, the 360-unit Woodland Ridge, created by Horizon Development Group Inc. on 18.3 acres south of W. Howard Ave. and west of S. 85th St.
Along with the design aspects, Water Tower View also is unusual among senior housing developments because it promotes a "deaf culture," said Joe Riggio, president of the Wisconsin Association of the Deaf.
Riggio, communicating through a sign language interpreter, said deaf elderly people living in nursing homes tend to be socially isolated because they have few opportunities to use sign language.
"They really can't have that when they're only around hearing people," Riggio said.
Water Tower View is owned by Southeastern Wisconsin Deaf Senior Citizens Inc., a non-profit group with about 140 members.
The $5 million development was financed with about $300,000 in foundation grants, along with affordable house tax credits of around $2 million, Leiterman said. U.S. Bank provided a loan to help complete the financing package. Water Tower View's rental income will pay off the loan.
The federal tax credits were sold to Richmond Group Capital Corp., a Greenwich, Conn., private investment firm, to raise the development's equity financing, Leiterman said.
Projects receiving affordable housing tax credits are required to provide apartments at below-market rents to people whose income falls below certain thresholds.
At Water Tower View, monthly rents will range from $518 to $815, Leiterman said. Single renters cannot have annual incomes exceeding $23,500, she said, and couples cannot have annual incomes of more than $32,280.
Water Tower View is among just a small group of apartments aimed at deaf people, but Leiterman expects demand to grow as the country's population, fueled by the baby boomers, continues to age.
Twenty-eight million Americans have hearing loss, and that number is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to www.hearingloss.org.
"There will be more and more people who need these features," Leiterman said.
When someone knocks on Carol Comp's door, it's up to her dog to let her know company is calling.
Comp is deaf, so knocks and doorbells and smoke detectors go unheard at her West Allis duplex.
But next month, Comp will move to Water Tower View, an unusual apartment building that will open Sept. 22 in Greenfield. It will be among just a handful of housing developments nationwide designed to meet the special needs of residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Water Tower View's 43 apartments will include video phones, doorbells with flashing lights and other features that allow elderly deaf people to live independently. Comp, who will be Water Tower View's on-site manager, is eager to move into her new home - where sign language conversations will be the rule, not the exception.
"All of my (current) neighbors are hearing, and we only say 'Hello,' " Comp said.
At Water Tower View, Comp says in an e-mail, "There will always be a good and lengthy conversation among us. I will never be lonely."
Water Tower View, 3983 S. Prairie Hill Lane, will be Wisconsin's only apartment community developed for older people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It will be among just 14 such complexes nationwide, said Judy Leiterman of Cardinal Capital Management Inc. in Milwaukee, Water Tower View's property management firm.
"It's a market that needs to be served," Leiterman said.
As deaf people age and retire, they often find themselves living in isolated conditions, especially when a spouse dies, she said. Some live in nursing homes, despite being physically and mentally fit, because family members are concerned about their safety, Leiterman said.
Water Tower View will create a community for seniors who are deaf or hard of hearing, Leiterman said. She said two-thirds of the apartments have already been leased, mainly to people from southeastern Wisconsin. But the residents include people from northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Florida, she said.
"The word is out (among deaf people) that there's an opportunity to live independently," Leiterman said.
The videophones in the one- and two-bedroom apartments will let residents use sign language in their telephone conversations. Water Tower View's secure entrance also will have a videophone so visitors can contact residents by using sign language.
Other features include annunciator panels in Water Tower View's hallways and apartments that boost the effectiveness of hearing aids. The apartments also have strobe lights that flash different colors to indicate the sounds of doorbells, telephones and fire alarms.
The building was designed by AG Architecture Inc. of Wauwatosa and John Dickinson, a special-needs architect who is deaf, of Winter & Co. of Boulder, Colo. The apartments are within a larger senior housing development, the 360-unit Woodland Ridge, created by Horizon Development Group Inc. on 18.3 acres south of W. Howard Ave. and west of S. 85th St.
Along with the design aspects, Water Tower View also is unusual among senior housing developments because it promotes a "deaf culture," said Joe Riggio, president of the Wisconsin Association of the Deaf.
Riggio, communicating through a sign language interpreter, said deaf elderly people living in nursing homes tend to be socially isolated because they have few opportunities to use sign language.
"They really can't have that when they're only around hearing people," Riggio said.
Water Tower View is owned by Southeastern Wisconsin Deaf Senior Citizens Inc., a non-profit group with about 140 members.
The $5 million development was financed with about $300,000 in foundation grants, along with affordable house tax credits of around $2 million, Leiterman said. U.S. Bank provided a loan to help complete the financing package. Water Tower View's rental income will pay off the loan.
The federal tax credits were sold to Richmond Group Capital Corp., a Greenwich, Conn., private investment firm, to raise the development's equity financing, Leiterman said.
Projects receiving affordable housing tax credits are required to provide apartments at below-market rents to people whose income falls below certain thresholds.
At Water Tower View, monthly rents will range from $518 to $815, Leiterman said. Single renters cannot have annual incomes exceeding $23,500, she said, and couples cannot have annual incomes of more than $32,280.
Water Tower View is among just a small group of apartments aimed at deaf people, but Leiterman expects demand to grow as the country's population, fueled by the baby boomers, continues to age.
Twenty-eight million Americans have hearing loss, and that number is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to www.hearingloss.org.
"There will be more and more people who need these features," Leiterman said.
