Home away from home
Critics say replacing Scripps Home with private and pricey MonteCedro only makes a bad problem worse for many seniors
By André Coleman 05/07/2009
Azoning change recently approved by the LA County Board of Supervisors will allow developers to move ahead with MonteCedro, a $175 million, 278-unit assisted- and independent-living facility set for construction on the site of the former Scripps Home in Altadena.
Some 140 former Scripps Home residents were relocated last year to temporary quarters in Alhambra, and will be first to move in after the long-stalled private assisted-living facility is built.
But even should MonteCedro, which was put on hold as the nation’s housing industry fell apart last year, finally be built, it will do little to help a growing number of seniors —among them people who were on a now-gone waiting list for affordable units at the former Scripps Home — in need of homes.
“There is an enormous concern in the senior community regarding this project,” said senior advocate Marvin Schachter. “For many people, Scripps was their ace in the hole. It was run beautifully and then, with very little notice, they moved the seniors out to Alhambra and announced the new facility would not be for low-income people. I know people who were on the waiting list to get into Scripps and now they have no idea where they will go.”
The nearly century-old Scripps Home was run by an independent nonprofit organization, which set aside all 180 rooms for low-to-moderate income tenants who paid a $20,000 entrance fee for lifetime care and a small 278-square-foot studio apartment.
The complex was demolished after being forced to merge in 2007 with Episcopal Housing due to mounting debts and infrastructure problems.
“We plan to finish the project when the economy turns around,” Episcopal Housing CEO Martha Tamburrano said of MonteCedro. “We still plan to bring an assisted-living facility to Altadena.”
After breaking ground last year, Episcopal Housing indefinitely postponed construction on MonteCedro due to the downturn in the economy, especially the housing market. Many new tenants would be required to sell their homes to come up with the entrance fee, which now ranges from $398,000 to $800,000. Tenants would also pay monthly fees to live there, ranging from $2,800 to $4,500.
“I think it is really sad they tore down Scripps and the residents were moved down to the Alhambra campus with the promise that their lifetime contracts would be honored,” said Altadena Town Councilwoman Michele Zack. “Now they have little hope of coming back since the project has been placed on indefinite hold. At the time, they were all positive about moving to Alhambra and it was like an adventure that they would come back from in a few years, but now who knows when the project will restart.
“I want to stress that it’s a good project. I walked the neighborhood and I couldn’t find anyone who objected to it,” Zack said.
Zack and other Town Council members unanimously supported the MonteCedro project, But “This is a different animal,” Zack said. “The mission of Scripps will change when MonteCedro opens, from being charitable to something new. Not everybody is going to be able to afford this.”
Most of the speakers at the April 28 meeting of the Board of Supervisors supported the project. The only opposition came from former Town Councilman Steve Lamb.
“I thought I had a place to go in my community when I got old where the stench of urine wouldn’t burn my eyes, that provided extremely high quality care for the elderly, but now they have taken that place away from us. This is an act of gentrification that won’t provide the same care and services that the Scripps Home gave the community.”
Twenty-five neighbors living nearby on El Molino Avenue and Colman Street signed a petition and emailed letters to the Board of Supervisors complaining about the size of the four-story project, but none of those people attended the meeting, which began at 9:30 a.m., when many people were working.
“Although it may qualify as senior housing, it will only have about 30 units, out of 278, for assisted living, and no skilled nursing,” wrote Jerry Larson, who lives directly across the street from the site. “It will be almost all independent living. The high cost of living there will put it out of the reach of most people in the community. It is a form of gentrification. A pleasant, racially and economically mixed, low-density residential neighborhood will be taken over by a luxury retirement community for the wealthy.”
Seniors relocated to make way for the new facility have not been upset by the postponement.
“They have been wonderful to us,” said former Scripps resident Nancy Lockwood, 76. “We have everything we need and more. It’s such a wrenching experience when you have to consolidate everything and move when you’re older, and I would rather be in Altadena, but the leadership from Scripps went with us to Alhambra and the campus has beautiful grounds with lots of trees. It’s a very well-operated place. I have not heard from anybody who is unhappy.”
According to a study by Kalorama Information, which provides marketing information to the health care and pharmaceutical industries, the assisted-living industry and places like the proposed MonteCedro development are booming, catering to wealthier seniors who do not require intensive care. The demand for affordable housing for seniors is expected to grow over the next 20 years as more baby boomers become senior citizens.
“Last year is the first year that baby boomers hit 62 and became eligible for Social Security,” said Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang. “That’s 3.2 million people and that is the beginning of the baby boom bubble. We will have 17 more years like that.”
Huang pointed out a study conducted by UCLA which said 54 percent of the seniors in Los Angeles don’t make enough money to take care of themselves.
“The highest cost they have is housing,” Huang said. “So to pay the rent, many of them don’t eat well. They forego medical care, or they live in substandard housing.”
“There is a desperate need for care as people live longer,” Schachter said. By 2020, according to the study Preparing for the Aging Baby Boomer, conducted by the California Strategic Plan on Aging Advisory Committee, 6.5 million Californians will be 65 or older, and one in five Californians will be 85 or older.
“In the senior housing projects I am acquainted with,” said Schachter, “we celebrate 100-year birthdays practically every month. People live longer. The question is: How do you pay for it?”
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Michele Zack has REPEATEDLY made the statement that in walking the neighborhood around Scripps she never heard a single complaint and that the residents were happy with the meetings the project developers conducted.
While Ms. Zack was once a friend of mine, I can not believe the truthfulness of her account. While I was the Altadena Town Council Land use Committee chair, I passed out by hand fliers notifying the residents of a upcoming community meeting, the first one not held and supervised by the developer. EVERY SINGLE resident I encountered, except a couple who were paid double their homes value by Scripps, were absolutely against the project and were clearly embittered that they believed they had no voice in their own community, and that no matter what they did the project would be approved because the developer the Episcopal Church was too powerful to fight, no matter how much they lied and mislead the residents and no matter how many times they got caught.
Sadly, the record of development in Altadena and the dishonorable conduct of the majority of the Altadena Town Council in supporting outside developers over the Altadena community is a long and crystal clear one. Much as I wanted to, I could not argue with these residents. The record is clear. The People have no voice, and even when raised what whisper they are allowed will be ignored.
As to Ms. Zack, well at one time she was square with the community vision of Lincoln Crossing, then she got $1,000 from the developer as a donation to produce a film she was doing and she got suddenly "Confused". I have no evidence she had gotten anything from the Episcopalians or their operatives, but it wouldn't come as a shock if she did, and if that accounted for soem of her past and present "Confusion"