From this tour, I learned that poverty is increasing for the senior population as it is decreasing for other populations. Even with the current affordable housing units for poor seniors, there are still not enough to accommodate all of them. We saw many different types of housing from transition homes to SRO to nice housing complexes in downtown. The Potiker Family Senior House and the Sara Francis Hometel were stark opposites. Potiker had presentable, senior and disabled friendly halls and various social activities to create a sense of community among the residents. The resident that we met, Irene, was lovely and willing to share with us her experiences in different housing systems and her experiences at Potiker. It was sad to see that there were so many high end high rise building across the street from the senior center, because there are still so many seniors that are living in poverty or on the streets. The hometel, on the other hand, was stuffy and had no natural light. Many of the people living there were people trying to transition from the streets to affordable housing. The hallway was also very narrow and was not disabled friendly for residents like Michael who uses a wheelchair. I cannot imagine seniors living in this hometel and I feel like the city and residents in the neighborhood should be aware of the living situations, like the hometel, that do not allow seniors a place to age in a healthy way. The last housing complex we saw was the North Park Senior Apartments. The place was amazing and had everything that was sustainable as well as senior-friendly with color coded doors for each floor, community centers, wide walkway, handbars on the side, and a patio for each apartment. I was in awe with the structure of the building and open patios on the top floors and the love and care demonstrated from the kind words written on boards or doors. I am thankful for being able to go on this tour to many different affordable housing within San Diego. It opened my eyes to the homelessness in some of the surrounding apartments and made me more aware of the disparities that seniors face when trying to find affordable housing in an expensive city.
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Amena NgWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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