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Seniors Thank Heaven For A Place To Call Home

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 28, 2008

For 46 years, Delores Aldacosta was a hairdresser. She loved the work.

"I was born to be one," she says. "I've got the gift of gab."

She was also a single mother, raising her son and helping him get through college at University of South Florida. When he married, he and his wife moved Delores into their home's mother-in-law suite, which kept them close but not too close.

Then along came her first grandchild, and they needed the space. Delores started looking for a place to live.

But this retired hairdresser had very little money. She never had a pension plan or a 401(k). Just a small Social Security check, certainly not enough to pay rent on a decent apartment and have anything left over.

Then she heard about the newly opened San Lorenzo Terrace in West Tampa.

"I was in the right place at the right time," she says. She called five minutes after learning about it, and was No. 12 on the waiting list. She met all the requirements and moved into her cozy second-floor unit overlooking a canopy of oak trees in February.

The 80-unit apartment building, dedicated earlier this month, is for low-income elderly residents. Single renters must have an annual income of $19,000 or less and be at least 62 years old. They pay only 30 percent of their gross income, minus medical expenses.

And for that, they get a spanking-new 540-square-foot apartment with appliances, blinds and central heat and air. Bathrooms come equipped with grab bars and walk-in showers.

Why such a bargain? Because San Lorenzo is a partnership of church and state. The project is sponsored by St. Lawrence Catholic Church and the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, which owned the eight acres where the complex was built. A $6.6 million grant from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development and a $500,000 grant from the city of Tampa bankrolled the project.

It's the 11th such venture for the diocese. Construction of the 12th, a 68-unit building called San Lorenzo Terrace Phase II, should get underway by the end of the year.

San Lorenzo is owned and operated by St. Lawrence Housing, a nonprofit corporation operating under HUD's rules and regulations. Although church members sit on the board and volunteer at the facility, there's no religious connection. People of all faiths, or no faith, are eligible to apply for a unit. That's the law.

Fernando Noriega, board vice president, spent 35 years working for the city of Tampa under six mayors. In his role as administrator of development, he had plenty of experience in low-income housing. So when he calls this HUD program "one of the best I've ever seen," I believe him.

"We've got a crisis on our hands," Noriega says of the housing situation for low-income elderly. "They're a forgotten population. They don't have too many cheerleaders out there. Some can't vote because they don't get out much and they can't form too many campaigns because their funds are so limited. So they don't have the voice to get things done."

Yes, it's an unlikely marriage. Religion and government do best operating in separate worlds. But those involved in this venture - and recipients like Aldacosta - say the partnership is a beautiful thing.

For Noriega, volunteering on the San Lorenzo board allows him to use his professional expertise and to live out one of the directives of his faith, which is to serve the needy.

"Knowing the residents are living in a safe, clean and secure environment, and can have a decent life in their older years, that's a great benefit of this," he says.

Monsignor Laurence Higgins, pastor emeritus at St. Lawrence, was a driving force behind this collaboration years ago. He can take great pride in knowing that every unit but one is now rented at San Lorenzo and inquiries are already being made about the future building.

"It's the elderly people who built this nation. We owe them everything," says Higgins. "So we have to show our gratitude by taking care of them. They still have much to give us with the wisdom of their years. This is the right and respectful thing to do."

Bravo to religious organizations that find a way to use government funds to do good works in the community. They're demonstrating that you don't have to preach a particular faith message to do the right thing. Actions always speak louder than words.

Get an inside look at San Lorenzo in Michelle Bearden's "Keeping the Faith" segment Sunday at 9 a.m. on WFLA-TV. She can be reached at mbearden

@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7613.

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