Crowded House
Connecticut housing faces age tensions.
You’re 75, past retirement, and just want to get some sleep. But you can’t, because next door, your 30-year-old neighbors are keeping you up until all hours of the night. Not the best way to spend your retirement, as senior citizens who live in Connecticut senior housing would tell you.
As the federal government has expanded the definition of disabled to include people with physical handicaps, mental disabilities, and even those with drug problems, these groups have become eligible to move into state-run projects for the elderly. “There is a federal regulation that says if any person is eligible and receives Social Security in any way, shape, or form, we would have to make arrangements to house them and allow them on our waiting list,” says Robert Counihan, president of the East Hartford Housing Authority in Connecticut.
While HUD has the ability to cap the number of non-seniors living in these housing developments, Connecticut’s legislature never gave the state housing agency the same privileges–which led to more units going to the young disabled.
Kevin Nelson, executive director of the Stratford Housing Authority in Connecticut, is concerned that unless the state changes its housing policy, the younger residents–who could conceivably stay in their units 30 or more years–will take more and more spaces. This eventually will make those slots scarce for the elderly, whose spaces generally see quicker turnover because of death or a move to a nursing home.
–Les Shaver
Lighten Your Load
Property owners lower laundry room utility costs.
It’s all too easy for property owners to forget about common area laundry rooms. But these rooms are grabbing the attention of more property owners, as utility bills continue to soar this winter and owners look for ways to keep energy and water costs to a minimum.
“Every customer we talk to is very concerned about energy costs,” says Neil MacLellan, chief operating officer of Mac-Gray Corp., a provider of multifamily laundry services. “Today, 70 percent of the product that we are installing in apartment buildings is Energy Star-rated front-load washers.”
United Dominion Realty Trust got a head start on its strategic laundry room upgrade. About four years ago, the Richmond, Va.-based owner and developer began swapping traditional machines for energy-efficient, front-loading models. While these machines do have a significantly higher upfront cost, they typically save about 40 percent in water and energy costs per load, says MacLellan.
In addition to upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment, owners are working with their route operator, who supplies and maintains laundry equipment, to increase the consumer cost for using the equipment. “We are going to see a steady increase in pricing for the next three to five years,” says Dan Terheggen, president of the Multi-housing Laundry Association. So for your next resident giveaway, pass out those highly valuable quarters.
–Rachel Z. Azoff