THE CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS APRIL 2011 | SPRING ISSUE
CSI Support & Development Services Builds Senior Apartments in California By Juanita Gillette, Palm Terrace Co-op I In the mid-seventies, Co-op learned of a law firm in Washington which had successfully sued the U.S. Government for withholding funds which had been allocated for sewer work. It sounded like they could help us, since HUD had been allocating funds for senior housing, but told everyone that they weren’t available. The lawsuit was a long costly battle, but in the end we prevailed when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case on appeal. This opened the door for us to develop many units at once, and in other states other than Michigan. With the lawsuit funds we developed buildings in Massachusetts, California, and Michigan. Word got out we had money and the people came. The dynamic Martha Sachs got the Co-op through the development of the lawsuit units as well as many we were able to win in funding competitions. This period represented our major growth outside Michigan, and the development of a truly national organization. The first building built out of state during this time was Magnolia Towers in California. This was our first building to receive very substantial financial help from a city— in this case the City of Los Angeles. They were very glad to get over 200 units of senior housing in a new development area. There were others receiving local financial support; Constitution Co-op from the City of Boston, Redwood Gardens from the City of Berkeley, California, South Park Manor from Gardena, California, and Maywood Manor from the City of Maywood, California, to name a few. Continued on next page.
A Publication from Congress’ California Volunteerism Task Force