The Sanctuary at Brooklyn Center is home to seniors who need help with daily activities but not the intense care of an expensive nursing home.
The 158-unit development is a rare affordable assisted-living community, offering seniors an important option as they age. Here, residents can find a critical step between independent living and a nursing facility.
Developed by SCA Properties and EverGreen Real Estate Development, the new community is located in Brooklyn Center, Minn., an area with a number of assisted-living projects but few units that are affordable to low-income seniors, says Andrew Aulde, a contractor with SCA Properties.
The Sanctuary at Brooklyn Center, which has a mix of studios and one-bedroom units, serves residents earning no more than 60% of the area median income and serves as a model for meeting the needs of a growing senior population.
Residents can receive help with bathing, housekeeping, and other activities. In addition, 28 studios are set aside for residents in a memory-care program for those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
“For residents and their families, the development provides peace of mind,” Aulde says.
The $37.1 million development was financed with the help of tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), which have helped to provide affordable housing for a variety of different populations but has had limited use in financing assisted-living projects. National Development Council is the LIHTC investor.
The Sanctuary at Brooklyn Center is able to serve low-income seniors with the help of the state’s Medicaid waiver, where Medicaid is used to help pay for residents to live in an assisted-living community. Development representatives estimate that every resident housed in assisted living instead of a nursing home saves the state as much as $3,000 a month.
The city of Brooklyn Center issued the bonds and provided the land under a cash-flow-based subordinate mortgage.
