July 10, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE….
Contact: Candace Ouillette Gaumond: 413.599.4785

CANDARAS ANNOUCES $500,000 GRANTAWARDED TO WILBRAHAM’S FALCON SENIOR HOUSING PROJECT

Wilbraham – State Representative Gale D. Candaras announced today that $500,000 was awarded to Greater Springfield Senior Services from the Housing Innovations Fund (HIF), administered by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. The HIF program is designed to create housing for low-income seniors and families and, in this case, to develop Wilbraham’s Falcon Senior Housing project.

The Falcon Senior Housing project is a proposed 45 unit 1 bedroom complex that upon completion will offer affordable homes to low-income seniors with on site personnel to assist in coordinating needed services for its residents. The housing site, projected to be developed in a vacant parcel adjacent to the Wilbraham Housing Authority’s Miles Morgan Senior Housing Project, will assist in addressing the growing need for affordable housing within the senior population.

Greater Springfield Senior Services has been working in cooperation with the Wilbraham Housing Authority to build affordable housing for area seniors. Candaras said, “The lack of affordably priced homes in this area has really created a housing crisis for our growing senior population. A new affordable development for area seniors will certainly fill a demand that increases daily; but it’s just a beginning. Many more such units are needed in the area. I applaud the Greater Springfield Senior Services and the Wilbraham Housing Authority for their efforts to secure this project’s funding and to improve opportunities for our seniors.”