If you’ve traveled through the intersection of Balboa Avenue and Genesee Avenue in Claremont recently, you may have noticed construction activity or glimpsed a structure rising on the northwest side along Mt. Etna Drive, where the county crime lab and the former community hospital once stood.
On June 29 last year, Serving Seniors joined community leaders and project developers in a groundbreaking for a wide-ranging developing including a planned 174-unit senior housing complex and senior center along with additional affording housing. It’s one of the most exciting developments our organization has been involved with in our 53-year history.Â
The project is making swift progress and is on track to open the senior center to the community and start moving people into housing by January 2025.
Recently, Chief Operating Officer Melinda Forstey and I did a site walk through of the project. We’re both familiar with the plans and knew what to expect. Still, we were both blown away by seeing the progress and seeing this incredible new community asset coming to life.
When we first met with community leaders and residents in the planning stages for this project, one concern we heard repeatedly was the need for more community space, especially a public senior center. When the Clairemont area was first developed more than 60 years ago, it was a haven for young homeowners. Now those original owners and the generations following them are older.
The closest existing senior center is surprisingly our Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center, located 12 miles south at 4th and Beech Streets in downtown San Diego. This is simply not adequate to meet the needs of the population in Clairemont and adjacent communities.
This will change in a dramatic way in January. Modeled after our downtown Wellness Center, Serving Seniors will provide a wide array of services free including meals, health services, workshops and classes, case management, and social activities. It is within walking distance of existing public transportation, shopping, and services. It will be open to the public daily. Volunteer opportunities will allow members of the community to get to know and support their neighbors.
We can already envision the lively atmosphere in the new communal dining room. The Clairemont space is breathtaking, with two story high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows on the east. It can seat and serve more people than our downtown facility, which is filled daily and open 365 days per year.
Serving Seniors sees the positive results from our programs at our original downtown center daily. We’re eager to bring the same programs and services to a new community.
We are partnering with our long-time collaborator, Chelsea Investment Corporation, in developing the senior housing. Southern California Housing Collaboration is the partner on 230 family units also being constructed on the site.  Emerson Construction is building the housing and senior center. When completed, two buildings will be set aside for lower and moderate-income older adults, and two buildings will be set aside for low- and moderate-income families, including units for developmentally disabled adults. Serving Seniors will provide onsite resident services.
San Diego County needs more senior centers, just as it needs more affordable housing for people of all ages and backgrounds. But in the case of older adults, we know demographics are working against us. As our society ages overall, the need for programs and services targeting older adults will grow more quickly than we can address it.
In the worst-case scenario, we face a ticking time bomb. We expect the 2024 Point In Time Count of San Diego County’s unhoused citizens will show yet another annual increase in the number of older adults over age 55 experiencing homelessness, In 2023, it was nearly one third of the total population. The number of homeless adults over age 55 is projected to triple over the next decade.
As we watch the Clairemont project come to life this year, we hope the community feels the same sense of anticipation. We heard their call for a senior center and we agree it was sorely needed. Their input made a significant different in this project.
As neighbors, we must do more than simply write letters to the editor. We must encourage more affordable housing. Yes, even and especially if proposed projects are next door to our own homes. Far from burdening communities, these projects are an asset, and they improve the quality of life for everyone, not just for the new residents.
Paul Downey is CEO of Serving Seniors, a San Diego-based nonprofit that helps seniors in poverty live healthy and fulfilling lives.