WESTMINSTER — U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Massachusetts Third District, visited town on Thursday to take a look at the newly built Westminster Senior Residences, an affordable senior housing building constructed behind the Westminster Senior Center on West Main Street, and celebrate the use of federal dollars to help solve local housing problems.
“It’s the hottest spot in Westminster,” said Town Administrator Stephanie Lahtinen, noting that “there was a lot of nervous excitement,” around the lottery, which at one point had 300 names on a list of people seeking to get apartments in the new senior affordable housing building.
The new $22 million senior housing building was constructed Commonwealth Community Developers of Cambridge, with help from $4.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding and $1.2 million a year for 10 years to be used by investors in the form of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
“After more than a decade of planning, it’s inspiring to see this project completed and fully leased,” said Trahan. “This is what happens when federal, state, local, and private partners work toward a shared vision, and it’s what smart public investment looks like.”
” The thoughtful design, the proximity to the Senior Center, and the partnerships with local service providers will help longtime Westminster residents stay connected, engaged, and supported in their community. This should serve as a model for senior housing not just in Massachusetts, but across the country,” Trahan said.
“This senior housing project was on the Town’s wish list for decades,” said Lahtinen. …”It allows people to be able to age in the community where they spent their whole life.”
The apartments opened at the end of last year and the 50 units are already full.
“Everything looks great and people are very appreciative that this is here. It’s been a positive thing for our community,” said Lahtinen, who explained that the senior center has been on West Main Street for 11 years, and over the years there was the idea of putting senior housing behind it and now that’s become a reality.
“You can’t build places like this fast enough,” said Trahan. “Obviously, you’re alleviating a huge need.” And when local seniors sell their houses to move into the senior houses, that’s an extended benefit by opening up more local housing for young families, she said.
Trahan said people often aren’t able to find a house to buy in their own community when they go to downsize, so having this new option is great for seniors who live in and around Westminster. “We’re trying to develop a lifecycle,” so people can remain in their own town and not be forced to move somewhere new just because they’ve gotten older and see a need to downsize.
“It’s worked out great,” said Lahtinen. “There’s always complaints when something goes bad and I haven’t heard anything, so that’s good.”
Resident Patty Pichette said she’s pleased with the move into the new unit, saying she had been living in Florida with her husband when he died, “And my daughter said, ‘Could you tell me when you’re coming home?'”
“Find a place, and I’ll be there,” Pichette said she told her daughter. And she had found a house she bought and lived in for two years in Winchendon, but she said that with her health issues, she was having trouble mowing the lawn, shoveling snow and doing other chores. “I didn’t know this place existed,” but then when she found out about it, she said, “I said ‘What the hay? I’ll sell my place and start a new life here.'”
One bonus she said is bumping into old friends. “I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in years, since elementary school.” And another bonus has been able to keep her service dog.
“For me, it’s been great, I’m just down the hall (from the activities room), the laundry is right around the corner. A lot of my friends are on the third floor, but the elevator access has been great.”
She said a woman on the third floor created a mini library and puzzle room, “And I found out we used to do Girl Scouts together in Ashburnham. Oh my goodness! It’s like old home week.”
Trahan even took a moment to put a piece of the half-done puzzle into the puzzle.
And people Pichette knew asked if the noise from Route 2 was a problem, and she said it hasn’t been. “You can’t hear anything.” And there’s a trail for walking the dog out back.
Trahan took a tour of the facility, and her group wound up at the room of Patty Gelsomini, where they all sang “Happy Birthday” to Gelsomonini. She showed off her unit to the group, saying, “I love it.”
She said she sold her Winchendon Cape in two days, and there were four people fighting over it. “It was too big … I was looking for something smaller. … I love it, everybody’s nice.”
For Senior Center Director of Elder Affairs, the addition of the new senior housing right behind the senior center has been something that just made sense.
“We got a lot of folks that were already coming to the senior center, and one of the reasons they wanted to live here was the close proximity,” Lawrence said.
“We call it an extension of the house, that’s what we call the senior center.”
She said having the senior housing so close by, it has “definitely increased our numbers down there,” at the senior center, a stone’s throw down the hill from the new apartment building.
“There’s a lot of good people here,” said resident Mary Lajoie, who pointed out that the staff has already retrofitted her room with a handicapped door, which opens automatically, to help her get around. She misses her old house in Ashburnham, but sees the need to downsize. “I loved my old house but it was six rooms. I loved my porch. … I miss it but what can you do?”
Trahan said she was hearing a common refrain, in which many of the residents had lost their spouse, and “they realize the upkeep on the family home is too much.”
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