Waltham is celebrating a new affordable housing development for older adults with low and moderate incomes. Local leaders and residents held a ribbon-cutting on Wednesday.
Lynn Goldstein-Garguilo moved into new development, called Leland House, soon after it opened in December. She says that, on a fixed income, her housing options were limited after her husband was placed in a nursing home.
“I think your longevity becomes more apparent when you’re in your 70s and you don’t want to feel alone,” she said.
Her new home has played a major role in her happiness, she told GBH News.
“You have the feeling of emotional security. You have neighbors. You have staff,” Goldstein-Garguilo said. “You know that you’ll always be taken care of in an emergency, which is when you’re in your seventies is one of your prime worries.”
2Life Communities, the developer that is also an affordable housing advocate in Massachusetts, says Leland House is a 68-unit complex for people 62 and older who meet specific income parameters. To qualify, prospective individual residents must make 60% or less of the region’s median income of $114,000.
The three-story development is adjacent to the Waltham Council on Aging located at William F. Stanley Senior Center, allowing residents to access the full breadth of services from both organizations. The 1.5-acre site also provides outdoor space for residents.
The project stands at the site of the former Leland Home, which was founded in 1879 to provide personalized residential and nursing care to seniors in Waltham for nearly 140 years.
Cissy Spear and her husband were struggling to find housing they could pay for after she retired from her job as a math teacher. They applied to live at Leland House and got approved. Spear and her husband, who were the first to move in, say they’ve found community at the complex.
“Just being around seniors, we have a lot in common,” she said. “There’s tons to talk about. Living in a city is phenomenal. Oh, my gosh, there’s so much to do. There is public transportation — but it is the great people who make the building.”
Leland House is subsidized through a mix of local and federal funding.
