Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley seeks to build senior housing in Tewksbury

With the support of local officials, Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley Inc. proposes to develop 32 subsidized units of supportive, rental housing for seniors, and one unit for a resident manager on a Livingston Street property owned by the town’s Housing Authority.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development on Nov. 16 announced it was awarding $5.4 million to help fund the project. HUD also awarded $511,200 to cover rental subsidies for the first three years, after which it would consider extending the payments.

Elder Services, a nonprofit agency that provides home care and other services in 23 area cities and towns, has previously developed two supportive senior housing projects, one in Chelmsford and one in Westford, both of which received funding under the same HUD program.

“Whenever we have an opportunity to create additional affordable housing for elders, it is very exciting,’’ said Rosanne J. DiStefano, executive director of the Lawrence-based Elder Services agency.

Following the model it used for the other projects, the agency envisions a partnership in which the Tewksbury Housing Authority would manage the housing, and Elder Services would provide the support services, DiStefano said.

The development would be built on a vacant portion of the 6.8-acre property on Livingston Street, where there is already a 60-unit senior facility that the Housing Authority manages. The authority also manages 50 senior housing units on an adjacent site, and 10 units of family housing and three units of housing for people with disabilities across the street.

“Because of our long history in providing services to elders,’’ DiStefano said, “we have learned a lot about what the ideal living arrangements should be, and how to build a sense of community, a support system’’ that can enable seniors to live independently as long as possible. “We bring all our experience to bear on that.’’

She said supportive housing also provides a less costly option for seniors who cannot afford to live in privately run senior or assisted-living complexes.

The Tewksbury project still faces several hurdles. One is to secure the proposed site through a purchase or a long-term lease from the Housing Authority.

The authority supports developing supportive senior housing on the site. But state rules require that it go through a bidding process to select a developer, according to Corinne Delaney, who retired as the authority’s executive director last week. She said the bidding process is expected to begin soon.

Elder Services also needs to secure the additional funding that will be needed to complete the project, an amount that had not been determined.

Tewksbury has committed $500,000 to the project, including $350,000 from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $150,000 from its Community Preservation Fund. Elder Services also plans to seek state funding.

Although it has been awarded the federal grant, Elder Services needs to complete its financing and have site control before it can receive the money, according to DiStefano. But she said her agency is “very pleased’’ at the HUD grant, noting that it had applied unsuccessfully for funding the two preceding years.

“It’s very, very competitive,’’ she said of the federal grant program, pointing out that the Tewksbury project was one of only three selected in Massachusetts under the latest round of awards.

DiStefano said that if Elder Services is not successful in securing the Housing Authority land, it would look for other locations in Tewksbury.

Her agency began exploring a project in Tewksbury after the Housing Authority and others in town broached the idea about five years ago, DiStefano said.

“We want to expand our elderly housing because we have such a lengthy waiting list,’’ Delaney said of the Housing Authority’s support for the project. She said the Livingston Street site is ideal because it is next to two elderly housing projects, near a park, and on a public bus route.

Delaney said the proposed development would also provide an option for seniors who are in conventional public housing but reach a point when they need more assistance. She said the town authority does not have any units of supportive housing.

Selectmen, the Planning Board, the town’s Local Housing Partnership, and its Community Preservation Committee all sent letters supporting the regional agency’s grant application, according to Nancy Reed, a Planning Board member who represents her board as an advisory member of the Local Housing Partnership.

The project would provide both needed senior housing and supportive services that will benefit all of the seniors living in public housing on Livingstone Street, said Reed, who is also chairwoman of the Community Preservation Committee.

According to Elder Services officials, a coordinator would be hired to plan activities, programs, and services for residents of the supportive housing facility, and would also be available to those living in the neighboring senior housing sites.

Plans call for the apartments to be 550-square-foot, one-bedroom units. Residents, who must meet income requirements, would pay a maximum of 30 percent of their monthly income for rent, with the HUD subsidies covering the remainder.

DiStefano said that if all the remaining hurdles are cleared, construction could begin late this year or early next year.