A new housing development for low-income seniors was opened by Federation Housing in Trevose, providing 60 affordable housing units that will allow seniors to stay in their communities near family and friends without being priced out.
Federation Housing held the Oct. 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project, the Daniel B. Green House, in the presence of several state and local officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro (who spoke via video), Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo and Richard Green, a representative of the Green family and a board member of Federation Housing, among others.
The development, located at 4695 Somerton Road, joins 12 other Federation senior-living communities opened to combat the growing affordable housing crisis.
“The senior population deserves to age with dignity in the communities they’ve helped shape, regardless of their financial circumstances,” said Eric Naftulin, executive vice president of Federation Housing. “The Daniel B. Green House reflects our commitment to expand access to affordable, high-quality housing and enrich our relationship with the greater Trevose community.”
Naftulin added that eight of the building’s 60 units will be set aside to help people in Bucks County who are chronically homeless, and the organization is excited to be able to help some of those people through the project.
The project is named after Daniel Green, a local philanthropist, one of the founding board members at Federation Housing, and the late chairman of Firstrust Bank.
This housing development becomes the third named after a member of the Green family, and it shares a campus with the Florence E. Green House, Daniel Green’s late wife.
Naftulin added that while the two developments honoring the late couple aren’t physically connected, the designers crafted the surrounding areas to showcase the relationship they had.
“We made this central garden to capture the relationship between Florence and Dan Green. We are calling it the Love Garden. It has a nice gazebo, some benches for seating, water features and also a sculpture that was created for this particular relationship to show the love and the work of Florence and Dan Green in the community,” Naftulin said.
He explained that the development project took around five years to complete, as the building process for affordable housing is more challenging than market-rate housing.
Naftulin said they had to go through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for initial tax credits, securing money the county is investing to create affordable housing, and get the assistance of private foundations like the Green Family Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
He added that Federation Housing scouts out areas where these housing developments can have the greatest impact by looking at population studies to see where seniors are living and finding areas with lower incomes.
Naftulin said that the organization has been targeting southern Bucks County, eastern Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia for some time, as those areas have a high concentration of seniors in need.
“We know there are thousands of needy seniors living in that [Bucks County] zip code that need an affordable place to live. So unfortunately, 60 units is a small dent in meeting that need, but somebody’s got to do it,” Naftulin said.
Assisting these seniors and creating affordable housing is a point of pride for Federation Housing, and Naftulin recalled some stories he’s heard from people after they signed their leases.
“They told me that the last place where they were housed either didn’t have heat or running water or a flushing toilet, or they had no house at all and were living out of a car or a hotel room. Seniors just don’t deserve that. They deserve to age with dignity in the community, and Federation Housing is proud to provide that,” Naftulin said.
He said the new units give seniors the opportunity to maintain independence as they age and have the ability to maintain a place they can afford.
The project is also an important symbol for the Green family, as it further cements their legacy as involved members of the community dedicated to helping others.
“The Daniel B. Green House stands as both a tribute to his compassion and a tangible solution for seniors who deserve the dignity of a safe and affordable home. Seeing my parents’ legacies honored side by side — through the Florence E. Green House and the Daniel B. Green House — is deeply meaningful for our family and reflects Federation Housing’s enduring mission to serve the community,” said Richard Green.
We need Center City housing as well. Why hasn’t Zuritsky provided the land and money yet?