Faced with temporary relocation while their apartments undergo renovations over the summer, over a dozen elderly tenants living at Point Reyes Station’s Walnut Place have formed an association to bring their concerns to the building’s nonprofit owner, EAH Housing.
Last year the nonprofit announced plans to remodel the 40-year-old building’s 26 rooms and make upgrades to common spaces, a laundry room and landscaping. Starting in August, the senior facility’s 25 tenants will have to move out in staggered groups of six, for about a month each.
Four trailers will be parked along the property’s rear on B Street for most of the tenants to live in while the work is done, leaving two tenants per group with the option of staying in one of two rooms located at opposite ends of the building or in bed-and-breakfasts. Some residents have said they may stay with their families or go traveling.
“There are a lot of faces that are calmer now because we have a tenants union,” said Peggy Day, who will be one of the first residents to move out. “The mission is to ensure that tenants live with peace, dignity and respect, throughout the remodel process and afterward.”
Tucked in a corner of downtown Point Reyes Station, Walnut Place lies within a convenient walking distance to medical and mental health clinics, a grocery store, a pharmacy, a bank, restaurants and a community center. Now, with the impending move weighing heavily on the minds of many residents, fears have arisen that the stress of relocating might harm the mental and physical health of the more frail among them.
Ms. Day suspects the mental strain of the move-out has already taken a physical toll on some of the seniors. Since tenants met with EAH representatives in February, Ms. Day said, three were newly diagnosed with cancer, and two of those died in recent weeks. The health of a few others has also declined suddenly, she added.
“I spoke up [at a meeting in December] and said, ‘People are going to get sick, people are going to die,” said Ms. Day, a retired nurse who moved into Walnut Place last May. “And it’s been happening.”
But through the nascent tenants association, many feel empowered to approach EAH Housing about the move-out and other concerns, such as a recent change to a longstanding rule on outdoor clotheslines.
Chris Carrier, a spokesman for EAH Housing, said the nonprofit is aware of the burden placed on seniors faced with temporary dislodgement. He said communication between EAH Housing and the tenants association will help reduce that stress, as will two relocation consultants hired last year.
“It’s a big deal for them to have to go through something like this. But the outcome will be substantially better than what it is today.”
Aside from buying the building another 30 years or more of life, Mr. Carrier said financing for the remodel is tied to tax-credit funds that come with an agreement to keep Walnut Place preserved as senior low-income housing for decades more.
As a senior facility under jurisdiction of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Walnut Place will receive a 20-year lease extension that restricts the units to low-income, senior occupants. Likewise, EAH Housing’s main creditor will lend construction funds only if Walnut Place remains as affordable housing for another 55 years.
Given these stipulations, Mr. Carrier brushed aside speculation that the property may one day be converted to market-rate housing. He also offered that the building’s single-resident rooms prevent any future conversion to affordable housing for families.
“The rooms were purposefully designed to be for senior housing,” Mr. Carrier said. “If the rooms had two or three or more bedrooms, that might raise eyebrows. But they don’t.”
Residents will have to continue paying their federally subsidized rent—which amounts to as low as $75 a month for some, Mr. Carrier said—and utility bills during the four-week relocation, though EAH has promised to cover any extra PG&E charges accrued during
construction.
The most recent census data from 2010 shows 27 percent of Marin’s population is over the age of 60, and that number is expected to rise to over 33 percent by 2030.