Costa Mesa to add much-needed senior housing

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- With seniors waiting as long as six years for affordable

housing, the manager of a soon-to-open apartment complex expects rooms to

fill immediately.

Early next month, 71 new studios -- designated for low- to very

low-income seniors, as defined by county housing standards -- will be

available. The apartments are at 2080 Newport Blvd., the former site of

the dilapidated Sea Breeze Motel.

“Every day, we have several seniors here asking for housing,” said Alan

Meyers, executive director of the Costa Mesa Senior Center. “There’s

nowhere for us to refer them to.”

The Newport Senior Village will help fill some of the city’s growing

demand for affordable housing. As property becomes more valuable in Costa

Mesa, a rising number of seniors with fixed incomes -- generated

primarily from Social Security -- are finding it increasingly difficult

to pay rent.

Half of the rooms in the new complex will be reserved for seniors who are

older than 62 with an annual income of less than $24,350, said apartment

manager Sharo Khastoo, of Prudential Property Management. The remaining

units will be open to seniors who earn less than $35,150 a year.

The Newport Senior Village will not receive subsidies from either the

city or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Khastoo said management would accept low-income housing vouchers

granted by the Orange County Housing Authority.

In 1998, the Planning Commission required the management group to reserve

housing for low- to very low-income seniors before it approved its

request to renovate the rundown motel.

“We’re glad to know there will be more housing for those who need it,”

said Judith Weatherspoon, an administrator at Bethel Towers in Costa

Mesa, an 18-story tower providing affordable housing for more than 290

seniors.

The towers, across the street from the senior center, have a six-year

waiting list for one-bedroom apartments, Weatherspoon said. Bethel Towers

managers still have more than 700 additional applications to sort

through.

FYI

For more information on the Newport Senior Village, call Prudential

Property Management at (949) 722-8104.