Here's an Idea for our old Hospitals

[jay]

I like the idea of residential uses for our old hospital buildings.  I would expand the concept to include apartments to be occupied by current wage earners.   Could the Oakhill Renaissance Building be saved by using the top two floors for apartments?  Downtown Youngstown will not adequately recover until we pack all downtown living spaces with people with higher incomes.

[Leah]

Old Hospitals Become Stylish Senior Housing

(May 5, 2006) --   Philadelphia has an abundance of obsolete 19th and 20th century hospitals that are often well located and architecturally interesting.

Although some of the historic buildings have been turned into pricey condos, others are being snapped up by community groups that partner with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to turn the properties into low-cost housing for seniors and disabled people.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allows only $96 per square foot for residential construction, less than half of what market-rate construction runs in Philadelphia, but the state found additional grants.

It also helps that the developer, Theodore Robb, previously worked for HUD as a regional administrator and is versed in the language of the bureaucracy.

Because these are historic buildings, HUD agreed to relax the rules. The upshot is that each unit is different, taking advantage of the existing architecture. All have 10-foot ceilings, which give the 585-square foot units a feeling of spaciousness, and many have floor to ceiling bay windows.

To qualify for apartments, individuals must be living on fixed incomes of $24,000 a year or less. The cutoff for couples is $27,500.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Inga Saffron (05/05/2006)