Award of Excellence: CityScape at Belmar

摘要

Metro West Housing Solutions won a 2017 Award of Excellence in Project Design for building a contemporary and accessible environment for seniors. Nominated from among the NAHRO Award of Merit winners each year, the Awards of Excellence winners are chosen by national juries and honored at the annual National Conference and Exhibition in October. They represent the very best in innovative programs in assisted housing and community development. The Project Design category focuses primarily on the physical or landscape design of a building or project. Until CityScape at Belmar was built, Lakewood's thriving downtown had no affordable housing options for seniors. When Metro West Housing Solutions (MWHS) (https://www.mwhsolutions.org/) announced its plans to develop a mixed-income senior housing community, the Belmar community welcomed and encouraged the development. CityScape at Belmar has been turning heads since it broke ground. The colorful building is prominent and recognizable in downtown Belmar and has an opening to Belmar's recreational path. The design goal was to create a contemporary senior environment to encourage an engaged, dynamic lifestyle for active seniors. The project includes a total of 130 units -- 96 income-restricted and 33 market-rate. During the resident application process, MHWS noticed that a number of seniors were over the income limits by small margins and were caught in limbo – unable to qualify for 100 percent affordable developments, but priced out of the market-rate senior housing. To accommodate these seniors, MWHS lowered the CityScape market-rate rents in the 80-100 percent area median income (AMI) range.