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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.
Seattle, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: The project will renovate the Home's Day Center to improve accessibility, launch health education sessions and offer holistic support for low-income older adults, particularly women experiencing homelessness and economic insecurity.
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
Phoenix, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: Chicas Por La Causa sought to install a crosswalk near a busy, six-lane intersection in the Maryvale neighborhood. Project organizers heard from residents that they avoid crossing the street near the Casa de Primavera -- an apartment complex for low-income residents -- because they fear getting hit by passing cars. To address this, CPLC Staff and community members collected pedestrian data to demonstrate a need for traffic calming measures to ensure safety. That allowed them to argue their case to City officials, who ultimately decided to install two flashing beacons at intersections, which help make people crossing the street more visible to drivers.
Phoenix, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project created waist-high, raised-bed planters for the Society of St. Vincent De Paul's urban farm. Designed to hold up in the Arizona sun and heat, the raised beds sit at the farm's entrance. Project organizers also planted shade trees and installed benches to better serve the garden's older adult volunteers and people with disabilities. A new chalk board also helps remind garden volunteers about progress on day-to-day tasks. Project organizers report that since the upgrades, many older volunteers have renewed interest in working in the garden.
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