This past Thursday Maria, Joey, and I took on the Tour of affordable housing for seniors together. Six out of the Seven homes we visited were located in Downtown San Diego. I thought that it was so interesting to see the stark contrasts of the architecture, facilities, and people just a few blocks from each other! We started off at Potiker Family Senior Residence. The infrastructure was very wheelchair accessible with large walkways and ramps with large outdoor dining areas as well as a well kept garden. It seemed like a safe, cozy, and comfortable place to live! The next location, Sara Frances Hometel, was completely different. There were only old men standing around at the entrance, many of them were smoking and physically disabled. The building is old, as the fence by the side of building had barbed wires on them. Maria and Joey got to tour one senior’s rooms and they noticed that it smelled really bad inside and the bedrooms were even smaller than our dorm rooms at UCSD. Celadon, just one street across is very modern. It was surprising to read that rent is $533-879, similar to the Hometel but living conditions seemed so much better. PATH San Diego’s Connections Housing is located three streets down. We noticed that the sidewalks were sloped, and the streets were busier with younger to middle aged adults whom were a mix of racial backgrounds. Next, Atmosphere located on Fourth Avenue was definitely not what we expected affordable housing to look like. It was highrise, modern, spacious, and clean. We thought that this place was probably more expensive to live in. Just a short walk away was New Palace Hotel which seemed older, but seemed like it was in the process of being remodeled. It’s is located near the highway but it was still away from the noise. We could only see one bus stop across the street, and some sidewalks, but no grocery shops. Our last stop was North Park Senior Apartments and I thought that this place was the most home-y out of all the homes we visited. It’s located in a suburban area with gyms and a floral store across the street. The most beautiful part though, was the roof floor where you could see all of San Diego. I felt like this home provided a very comfortable life for seniors because it supports a quiet and relaxing lifestyle. As a student at UCSD, I never got to explore downtown San Diego and North Park, but through this adventure, I got to dive in and immerse myself into the diversity of what is San Diego and observe what life is like for seniors. What I took away from this tour was that San Diego does offer a variety of housing options, however still at a steep price, especially for people living along the poverty line. All in all, I am glad that PATH San Diego’s Connections Housing and North Park Senior Apartments serve as a national model for sustainable, affordable housing and I hope that more of these would be built in the future!
Katrina HungWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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