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Rogue Retreat (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Housing
└ Lifelong housing and accessibility
└ Lifelong housing and accessibility
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.
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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.
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.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Medford, OR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Accessory dwelling units, tiny homes and manufactured housing
Description: This project will create permit-ready housing plans that incorporate accessibility features for older adults and people with disabilities. The city will provide the plans for free or at low cost to residents, allowing them to construct duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes or cottage cluster housing.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Talent, OR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Entrepreneurship and improved economic resilience
Description: Through a series of intergenerational workshops, Talent Maker City invited residents of all ages to learn STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) skills, such as carpentry, 3D printing and screen printing. Workshop activities included screen printing shirts for a garden club fundraiser, building bat houses and making pollinator watering dishes. The pollinator theme reflected Talent's designation as a Bee City USA and local interest in pollinator gardens. Although COVID-19 restrictions curtailed the program's full impact, the city's maker space established a partnership with the Talent Garden Club. Future plans include programming to promote Talent as an age-friendly city.
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