Seniors have many housing options, say fair organizers
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Sept. 13, 2006

Having a strong foundation is a key to any home, and officials believe the inaugural North Olmsted Senior Center Housing Fair Sept. 20 will assist area seniors by giving them a strong base of information when they’re looking for the right residence.

Jackie Chavez-Anderson, senior center administrator, said a wide range of senior housing facilities and organizations will have representatives and information available for people attending the free fair, which takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 28114 Lorain Road at both the Senior Center and the North Olmsted Community Cabin.

“People coming to it will be able to pick from many choices of information and options,” Chavez-Anderson said. “If people are just coming into the area and want a home for seniors, are moving into a new residence or want to make changes in their current one, we’ll have information or someone there who can address that with them.”

Chavez-Anderson said center officials decided last year to have alternating health and housing fairs for seniors annually. The initial health fair was last year, so this year’s housing fair will be the first put on by the center.

“We’re pretty excited about having it because it’s a need that affects many people and their families,” Chavez-Anderson said. “The fair will have information that is useful to all of them in deciding what’s the best way to go for seniors.”

She said the range of housing officials will include city, county, financial, social work and experts in senior related fields.

“There will be people from the county auditor’s office who can discuss how you may qualify for reduced property tax rates or low-interest home loans,” Chavez-Anderson said. “People may not always realize everything that is available to them, so we’re trying to make the information available to them through the different people.”

Chavez-Anderson said housing needs can vary for seniors.

“Some may be wanting to move out of their current homes by downsizing to a smaller house or getting an apartment or townhouse,” she said. “Other people may want to add onto to a home with an addition for an in-law or parent while others may need some modification to accommodate someone’s need because of an injury or ailment like a broken hip.”

She said Tiffany Hunt, the center’s outreach coordinator and a licensed social worker, will be at the fair.

Hunt said the fair will make getting information as easy as possible.

“It will be one-stop shopping for getting a lot of the information,” Hunt said. “There will be realtors there to talk about homes, the finance people will discuss the loan programs, the police department will have Officer (Chuck) Holly there, and we will be talking about the city of North Olmsted senior programs.”

Hunt said the information is not limited to North Olmsted information.

“If people are moving out of the area and are going  down to Florida or somewhere else in the country, the realtors will have or can get information about homes and those areas,” Hunt said.

City Councilwoman Nicole Dailey Jones, who chairs the city’s fair housing review board, said having the fair is beneficial to the community.

“I’m thrilled that the senior center is able to put on a program like this,” said Jones. “There are a lot of issues in housing, and this is a good place for people to go to  get answers to their particular questions.”

Jones said she’s also pleased that center officials are having the Fair Housing Review Board participate in the event. She said that the fair will be a good way of helping reinforce the board’s missions of helping educate people about housing programs or issues as well as giving them information which would be helpful in the event of a complaint, which the board also deals with.

Jones, who was one of the city officials who attended the federal Housing and Urban Development’s annual conference this year, said it provided a lot of useful information for use in the city and surrounding area.

“One of our goals from the conference was to get this information out to people in the city, and going to the fair is one way we’ll be able to do that,” she said. “Like the other groups at the fair, we’ll be talking to people and answering questions to try and help them.”