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11/20/2017 11:00 PMThe day was cold and rainy outside but everyone inside at the Saye Brook Village celebration on Nov. 14 was all smiles, proud of the final result of their dedicated efforts: 15 new affordable senior housing units.
The new units, called Saye Brook Village South, bring the total number of affordable and moderate income senior housing units to 65 at the Saye Brook Village campus on Sheffield Street.
There to express their gratitude — and shed a few tears of relief and of joy — were two of Saye Brook Village’s new senior residents, selected by a lottery of low-income housing applicants.
“What you have done for people like me who are in such need — it is such a blessing to have housing that meets my medical needs and especially, in an area like Old Saybrook. I’m so safe and comfortable here,” said Renee Boudreau. “I’m blessed to be placed in this new unit where I can be more independent.”
Incoming resident Kathleen Clark is representative of the complex’s younger baby boomer generation of seniors.
“It’s wonderful to live here — it’s been life changing. I can maintain my independence,” said Clark, a retired social worker.
Clark, who sang in three different Connecticut stage bands when younger, says it’s a blessing that Saye Brook Village is next to the regional Estuary Senior Center and she looks forward to walking the path to the center to share her singing talents with other local seniors.
Saye Brook Village’s Elderly Housing Development Corporation Chairman Diane Arnold praised the hard work of those involved in the development at last week’s opening event.
“The Board of Directors had the foresight about nine years ago to put an option on the parcel of land at 57 Sheffield Street and then purchased it and held on to it until we received the funding to complete the project. It took a lot of hard work from all of those involved, including the Board, Millennium (construction manager), Haynes Construction (general contractor), Wiles Architects, Milone and MacBroom (engineer), EHM (on-site management company), and the Town of Old Saybrook,” she said.
Representing the housing complex’s management company, President and CEO of New Samaritan Reginald “Bill” Fairbairn said that the firm has developed and now manages about 2,600 senior housing units. But it’s not nearly enough to fill the need.
“We have 3,400 seniors on the waiting list for 55 sites,” said Fairbairn.
At Sheffield Street’s Saye Brook Village, the waiting list currently numbers 300 people and the time spent on the list stretches three to five years.
To finance design and construction of the new senior housing units, the non-profit Elderly Housing Development Corporation of Old Saybrook succesfully assembled a financing package that included a $2 million grant from the State of Connecticut’s Department of Housing, a $935,000 loan from Essex Savings Bank at a low interest rate subsidized by the Federal Home Loan Bank in Boston, and a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank. The contributions from the Federal Home Loan Bank toward this project flow through the Affordable Housing Program. The funding package covered the project’s pre-development costs including land acquisition, engineering, site development, and demolition of the old house on the property, as well as the construction costs for the 15 new one-bedroom rental units of Saye Brook Village South.
“In 2013, we filed an [unsuccessful] application to the Federal Home Loan Bank along with 115 others; only $20 million was available. Then in the fourth quarter of 2014, 107 applied and we scored 17th and were awarded a $500,000 grant and the ability to offer a two percent interest-rate loan,” said President of Essex Savings Bank Greg Shook at the opening ceremony.
Arnold, the Elderly Housing Development Corporation Chairman, also is a senior loan officer for Essex Savings. She noted that the Federal Home Loan Bank interest-rate subsidy to the project totals $381,000; this is in addition to the Federal Home Loan’s Bank’s $500,000 grant.