D.C. Seniors Find a Supportive Home in New Affordable Assisted Living Community, with Help from LISC
A $2.1 million predevelopment loan from LISC helped Gragg Cardona Partners build The Residences at Kenilworth Park, an affordable housing complex adjacent to a wetlands preserve in Northeast D.C. offering supportive services for Medicaid-eligible and other qualified elderly residents 60 and older. The development meets high-quality accessibility standards and provides on-site certified nurses and aides, access to nature, community and nutritious food, among many other keys to well-being.
Stewart Bailey’s family always wanted him to be able to age in a community they could trust, somewhere he would feel comfortable, even if they were no longer around.
Last year, the retired 60-year-old was one of the first to move into the Residences at Kenilworth Park, built near the scenic Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a wetland area in northeast Washington D.C. The 150-unit affordable apartment complex is providing Bailey with attentive care – a nurse administers his medications three times a day and he has access to enriching experiences within a supportive environment.
“The staff are really caring, open to what our needs are, very engaging,” said Bailey who previously worked in the warehousing industry in California before relocating to D.C. with his sister. “The people that I live with, we talk every day. We listen to each other's concerns as family and as just friends.”
Gragg Cardona Partners (GCP), a minority-owned family development firm is behind the Residences at Kenilworth Park and celebrated the facility’s ribbon cutting on June 3. LISC was there at the outset of this journey with a $2.1 million predevelopment loan that helped GCP move forward on the complex. The Residences offers assisted living housing and services for Medicaid-eligible and income qualified residents 60 and older who need assistance with two or more activities of daily living.
The units at Kenilworth Park range from studios to one-bedroom units and were designed to meet high-quality accessibility standards. Certified nurses and aides are available on-site and light housekeeping is offered. The kitchen serves three daily restaurant-style meals, as well as snacks throughout the day, with an emphasis on fresh food. A separate kitchen allows residents to prepare and share private meals with family. Other amenities include a hair salon, a space for physical therapy, and transportation to and from doctor's appointments.
GCP wanted the space to feel homey, explained Oussama Souadi, a partner with GCP. The building prioritizes natural light and boasts communal indoor and outdoor spaces. Residents are encouraged to spend more time in the variety of common spaces than inside their apartments, and a full program of daily activities foster socialization which in turn promotes physical and mental health. And they have access to art supplies to encourage exploring personal expression in a variety of mediums.
The Residences are set adjacent to protected wetlands that brim with wildlife and are a popular destination for birders. Guests are greeted by a portrait of the late Kimi Gray, a public housing advocate and neighborhood legend who famously embraced Queen Elizabeth II when she visited the area. Jay Coleman, a local artist, created Gray’s likeness from dried lily pads from the neighboring Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. A community garden sits off the back patio and offers residents a space to grow produce while enjoying views of the surrounding landscape.
“Providing seniors not just affordable housing, but facilities that have wraparound services as well as artistic, creative, social programming to keep them engaged in the community is really important,” Melanie Stern, LISC D.C. senior program officer said.
When LISC began working with GCP on this project, there were no affordable assisted living projects in D.C. More than 650 people are waitlisted for subsidized assisted living in the area. “We've known for a long time that there were simply no assisted living communities in Ward 7, forget about affordable or even market rate,” Souadi said. “That in itself tells us that District residents, at least in one of the underinvested wards, don't have a place to age within their community and they end up getting displaced either across town or out of town completely when their needs to carry out the activities of daily living increase.”
Then policy changed in 2017. The D.C. Department of Health Care Finance increased the reimbursement rate for affordable assisted living developments accepting Medicaid from $60/day to $158/day, one of the highest rates in the country, incentivizing the creation of additional long-term care options.
Washington D.C. has made great strides in providing more assisted living throughout the district but it must remain a priority, said Mayor Muriel Bowser at the ribbon cutting of Kenilworth Park.
“Having housing that is safe and quality and affordable across the income spectrum and across the age spectrum and across all eight wards is what we will have to continue to focus on,” said Bowser.
Despite the policy, the cost of land in the District has risen, and the rising cost of loans alongside the cost of building has made it difficult to get projects off the ground, Souadi explained. While GCP had letters of credit, traditional lenders were still hesitant to get on board with Kenilworth Park. Early-stage financing from LISC allowed GCP to kick off acquisition and predevelopment, which then leveraged construction financing from the District and other partners.
“That is a major catalytic role that LISC plays,” Souadi said. “Very few funders are going to have a charter that drives them to make investments that early in the risk profile of a project. We're a small developer in D.C., we're not a national developer or a household name, so access to capital for a minority-led developer is not always an easy thing.”
The pre-development loan from LISC covered a portion of acquisition costs, architecture, engineering, land use entitlements, development permit approvals, and other necessary pre-development expenses. Now the development is providing critically needed affordable assisted living senior housing and generating significant jobs and community development for the neighborhood.
This is not a one-off. LISC also provided GCP with a $1.84 million acquisition loan for the Residences at Benning Road, the developer’s second assisted living project in Ward 7. LISC was able to be flexible despite the high expenses and quick execution timeline. The Residences at Benning Road just had its topping off ceremony on June 10th, and construction is expected to be complete in June 2025.
For Souadi, the impact of investing in affordable assisted living reaches beyond housing. “Providing care to seniors is not for everybody,” he said. “You have to have the heart for it. You have to see who could be your mom, your grandmother, your grandfather, your grand family member, receiving an opportunity to live in a dignified way. That to me is something that gets kind of lost in the shuffle. That's our target audience–those folks whose lives we can really change meaningfully.” For people like Bailey in Washington, D.C., the Residences at Kenilworth Park are life-changing.