On Wednesday, Aug. 28, local affordable housing nonprofit YS Home, Inc. broke ground on The Cascades, a future 32-unit development focused on providing low-cost rentals to seniors. The first eight units are expected to be completed within 10 months. (Lauren "Chuck" Shows)
YS Home, Inc. breaks ground on The Cascades
- Published: September 11, 2024
Last week, local affordable housing nonprofit YS Home, Inc. broke ground on the first phase of The Cascades, a 32-unit development focused on rental housing for seniors.
As the News has reported in the past, upon completion of its four phases, The Cascades — to be located on 1.8 acres along Marshall and Herman streets, behind Miami Township Fire-Rescue and across the street from Friends Care Community — will encompass 22 low- to moderate-income rental units earmarked for seniors and 10 two-story townhomes to be sold at low cost to qualifying buyers of varying age demographics.
The first phase of the development, which was fully funded last year, will consist of two triplexes and one duplex, for a total of eight rental homes for seniors.
A 2017 Housing Needs Assessment conducted in the village by Columbus-based Bowen National Research identified affordable senior rentals as among the top housing needs in Yellow Springs. The study also found that, at the time, nearly 60% of senior renters in Yellow Springs had an annual income of less than $24,999.
Home, Inc. first announced plans for The Cascades in fall 2022 — but the nonprofit’s effort in support of senior rental housing has been ongoing for more than a decade. As Executive Director Emily Seibel told the crowd of about 40 folks who came out for the groundbreaking event, senior housing was the first project she worked on when she took the helm at Home, Inc. in 2011.
That year, the nonprofit proposed a senior apartment complex on the former 1.6-acre Barr property, where Mills Park Hotel is now located. That proposal didn’t move forward, but Home, Inc. shifted its focus, and in 2018, via a partnership with the Morgan Family Foundation, secured the current land on Marshall and Herman streets as the new site of a proposed development.
“We regrouped after our first effort didn’t make it across the finish line,” Seibel told gathered guests during a post-shovel champagne toast, in which she thanked the many people — local government officials and organizations, funding agencies, Home, Inc. staff and board members and community supporters — who helped bring the project to fruition.
“I promised you then I would be unflagging in my enthusiasm until the shovel was in the ground for affordable senior rentals,” Seibel added. “And what kept my momentum going were the senior volunteer activists holding grassroots meetings, picking out sites, cheering us along — this is really a dedication to them and to the folks who have kept this dream alive.”
In particular, Seibel referred to the efforts and advocacy of local seniors Andrée Bognar, Helen Eier and Suzanne Patterson, who have actively championed the need for expanded local senior rental housing for nearly two decades, even prior to Home, Inc.’s efforts in the same arena.
Following the groundbreaking event, the News spoke briefly with Bognar, who said she’s lived in her current Union Street apartment for 30 years, but during that time has hoped for — and worked toward — senior-focused rental housing closer to downtown and its amenities.
“I’m very pleased for Home, Inc.,” Bognar told the News. “You know, I am 94, so I don’t know how long I will live, and I don’t think that I will move [into The Cascades], but I am very excited that this is happening in our village, finally.”
She added: “I’m happy to see the benefit for other people — and probably I will not move, but I don’t know. I keep an open mind.”
Seibel told the News that The Cascades’ first phase will likely begin construction in earnest the week of Sept. 16, and will take approximately 10 months to complete. Home, Inc. is currently working toward securing funds for the second phase of the development, which the nonprofit aims to fund next year.
*The writer of this report is married to a member of the YS Home, Inc. board and owns a home purchased through Home, Inc.
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