CUOMO AWARDS $4.7 MILLION GRANT FOR SENIOR CITIZEN PUBLIC HOUSING TO MOBILE, ALABAMA HOUSING BOARD

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded the Mobile Housing Board in Alabama a grant for $4,741,800 to revitalize the 472-unit Central Plaza Towers senior citizen public housing development.

Cuomo said HUD is committed to meeting the housing needs of low-income senior citizens.

"Just as we want to save Social Security, we want to save housing security for older Americans in Mobile and around the country," Cuomo said. "Our parents and grandparents shouldn't be forced into substandard housing or nursing homes where they don't belong."

Central Plaza Towers currently has a vacancy rate of over 20 percent, because of the obsolete condition of the three towers, including efficiency apartments that are too small and are not accessible to people with disabilities. Individual apartments and common spaces will be renovated with the HUD grant, a 40-unit assisted living facility will be created within one of the towers for frail elderly residents needing supportive services, and a mini-mall will be created to provide shopping and other services to residents of Central Plaza Towers and people living nearby.

More than two dozen agencies, including two major universities, will be involved in the revitalization.

The HUD grant is part of the Department's HOPE VI public housing revitalization program, which funds the renovation and replacement of severely distressed public housing.

There are about 1.4 million units of public housing around the nation, where about 2.8 million people live. The median annual income of households in public housing is $6,939. A total of 46 percent of households are made up of families with children, another 30 percent house senior citizens, and 11 percent are home to people with disabilities.

Today about 1.5 million senior citizens pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing or live in substandard housing. Cuomo said housing problems for older Americans could grow worse because the number of Americans age 65 or older will double from about 34.3 million today to about 69.4 million in the year 2030 - when one in five people in this country will be elderly.