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Elizabeth Gregory Home (2023) Print
2023 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Housing
└ Lifelong housing and accessibility
└ Lifelong housing and accessibility
Older women experiencing homelessness faced safety risks and mobility barriers when an elevator outage and hazardous flooring limited access to essential services. To address this, EGH installed a stair lift, replaced unsafe flooring and added a security system, creating a safer, more accessible space. The renovated Empowerment Space now hosts health clinics, vaccine events and wellness classes, giving women a secure place to receive care and build community. These upgrades are long-term investments that strengthen emergency preparedness and expand programming for older adults.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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Phoenix, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: Organizers with G.A.S.K.I.N.S. hoped to use smart home technology to help older adults safely age in place. Volunteers conducted home assessments, using AARP's Home Fit Guide and other assessment tools. They then completed home modifications for seven families, completing repairs, adding accessibility features and providing them with smart home technology, such as camera doorbells. Finally, they trained program participants on how to use the new technology. Organizers report the interventions improved participants' mental health and enabled them to live more safely and comfortably in their homes.
Powhatan County, VA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: The site of Powhatan's historic Pocahontas School sat unused for many years. Organizers with Habitat for Humanity saw the campus as an opportunity to provide needed affordable housing for local older adults. To envision possibilities for the space, Habitat hosted four community design. At the workshops community members worked with a local architectural firm to draw up plans to transform two school structures into apartment buildings offering one- and two-bedroom units. Once completed, the development will offer 21 new affordable housing units in total. Organizers say the charrette also helped attract 2.2 million in financing for the project. Going forward, Habitat plans to continue to explore ways to fill the area's growing need for affordable housing.
Medford, OR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: Recent wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic compounded a growing homelessness crisis in Medford. Part of a statewide initiative to expand non-congregate emergency shelter services, Rogue Retreat worked to convert the 47-room Redwood Inn into transitional housing. This project made accessibility upgrades to a single-room-occupancy unit on the property. Rogue Retreat hired an architect to design features including a zero-step entranceway, ADA-compliant handrails in the unit's bathroom and accessible features for the kitchenette. The upgrades allow Rogue Retreat to provide shelter for unhoused individuals of all ages and abilities, giving them needed stability as they search for permanent housing.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Seattle, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Homeowner legal and financial documentation
Description: This project will help low- and moderate-income older adults access property tax relief. It aims to reduce housing costs and prevent displacement through outreach, multilingual education, and local partnerships.
Seattle, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To help the Southwest Seattle Senior Center become a safer and more inviting gathering space, organizers with Rebuilding Together Seattle made physical improvements to the facility. This included refurbishing handrails, demolishing a shed and replacing it with expanded ADA-compliant parking for members, repainting the building's faade and sprucing up landscaping. RTS used the project to promote its Open Volunteer Days, attracting people from the community to assist with the work. The Center serves an area of Seattle with the city's highest poverty rates and largest share of low-income residents. Project organizers said they hoped the improvements would help position the Center as a safe haven and community hub.
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