Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada announces housing program for seniors

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada has provided low-income housing through St. Vincent Residences for more than 30 years. The Golden Connection program will combat recent trends of seniors exiting to homelessness.

Right now, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada says, upwards of 30 to 40 seniors exit to poverty-ridden environments on a monthly basis. “They have been stable in their apartments for years, and now they are ending up at the homeless shelter. They have no capacity to survive in the homeless shelter,” said Marie Baxter, the CEO of Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada. “They have never experienced  homelessness.” Increases in rent, cost of living and a loss of a loved one are major factors to blame for the recent trend.

Escaping poverty is not the only factor that burdens seniors. Social isolation continues to negatively impact their lives as they grow older. “There’s a lot of senior isolation in our community. So we’ve actually stood Golden Connections up as a program that has a lot of wraparound services, there’s case management, there’s activities that seniors will participate in,” said Baxter. “We’re not just renting apartments, we really want to create an engaging community.”

This program is tailored to seniors that are 55 years old or older. Different from assisted living, the Golden Connections housing will provide some wrap around services but seniors must be able to take care of their own daily needs. There will be opportunities to socialize and interact with neighbors. The Battle Born sober living facilities are nearby, so future residents can expect to interact at social events and abide by drug and alcohol guidelines.

There is an application process that all future residents have to go through before onboarding. “The rents that are set for this building are actually set by the federal government, it’s not something that we set. So, there’s a certain number of apartments in this building that are for people that are, what they called 30% of the, you know, the income in our community. There’s a 50 percent or 60 percent.”

The Golden Connections program will be able to accommodate 28 seniors. For more information about the room availability and the onboarding process, click here.

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