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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
More Than Shelter for Seniors®
Tim Carpenter
Executive Director
(818) 255-0430 fax (818) 255-0433
tim@mtsfs.org
CENTURY HOUSING FUNDS
More Than Shelter for Seniors®
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - More Than Shelter for Seniors® (MTSFS), an innovative educational and wellness program for seniors living in affordable housing developments, got a major boost last week when Century Housing funded $200,000 for the program for the fiscal year 2001-02.
“Our pilot program has been very successful, and we are very pleased that we will now be able to more than double the number of residents being served by these worthwhile services,” according to Tim Carpenter, Executive Director of MTSFS.
The program was created in 1999 when Century Housing made three loans totaling $14 million for the acquisition and rehabilitation of three senior apartment communities in Southern California. Century rebated one-third of the interest paid on the loans, more than $500,000, to MTSFS to initially fund on-site programming to improve the lives of residents at the three properties.
“Century links affordable housing for low and moderate income families with More Than Shelter® social services which include child care, veteran's support services and career counseling,” said G. Allan Kingston, President & CEO of Century Housing. “These types of amenities create a better quality of life for the low-income families and individuals we serve.”
MTSFS programs are designed to give low- and moderate-income seniors an opportunity to continue growing intellectually, creatively and emotionally. Programming focuses on activities that stimulate the mind, body and spirit, to achieve more active engagement in life, help prevent illnesses that could require more costly types of care, and promote residents' ability to continue living healthy and independent lives.
MTSFS has requested the Andrus School of Gerontology at USC to study the effectiveness of its programs on residents' health and independence. The study measures program effectiveness through monitoring self-reported health, health services usage, and life satisfaction levels.
“By providing an active environment where the emphasis is on personal fulfillment and continued engagement in life activities, we're trying to show seniors that there really are no barriers to their continuing to live as full and busy a lifestyle as they want,” Carpenter said. “That's a real change for many low-income seniors, who often struggle on a daily basis just to survive, without the resources to be able to access programs that tap into those abilities.”
For more information about MTSFS, to make a donation, or to volunteer, please call
Tim Carpenter at
(818) 255-0430, or by e-mail at
tim@mtsfs.org
More Than Shelter For Seniors is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to create and provide life enhancing intellectual amenities for low- and moderate-income seniors. MTSFS focuses on activities that stimulate the mind, body, and spirit, helping more than 2,000 low-and moderate-income seniors in 15 communities lead healthy and independent lives in the following cities: Ontario, Anaheim, Duarte, Pomona, North Hollywood, Whittier, Azusa, Long Beach, Norwalk, Huntington Park, Fountain Valley and Norwalk.
Century Housing, one of California's largest affordable housing lenders, has helped create more than 11,000 units of quality affordable housing in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Century granted $500,000 of loan interest on three acquisition and rehabilitation loans to fund the More Than Shelter For Seniors on-site program.
For more information about Century or to make a donation to the More Than Shelter Fund, which supports MTSFS and other social programs, please contact Regina B. Korossy, Executive Director, The More Than Shelter Fund at (310) 642-2000, or visit www.morethanshelterfund.org
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