A PLACE TO CALL HOME; APARTMENT PROJECT TO LET SENIORS JOIN FAMILIES IN FAST-GROWING COMMUNITY.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Daily News Staff Writer

Drawn by safe streets and strong schools, young families have been the main ingredient of the Santa Clarita Valley's population boom.

But pressure is building on the other side of the spectrum. With thousands of seniors moving to the area each year, housing for elderly relatives, especially parents of current Santa Clarita homeowners, is becoming scarce.

Housing for lower-income seniors is growing especially scarce, builders and residents say, forcing thousands of elderly renters to pay huge portions of their fixed income on rent.

Brad Berens, executive director of the nonprofit Santa Clarita Senior Center, said the lack of affordable housing is keeping many seniors out of the valley and away from the children and grandchildren that have made Santa Clarita the fastest-growing region in Los Angeles County.

``A lack of affordable housing is precluding an in-migration of seniors,'' he said. ``It's obviously a very desirable place to live, but there's not enough housing.''

Berens estimated that Santa Clarita's senior population is growing by about 1,000 people a year. Judging from the 7,000 seniors who come to the center every year, as many as 60 percent of them may end up paying more than half of their income for rent, he said.

Berens and other senior housing advocates point to a flood of interest at an innovative new complex in Santa Clarita as proof that demand is growing.

More than 850 seniors are on the waiting list for the 264-unit Bouquet Canyon Seniors housing project. The Senior Center, which is developing the complex with for-profit builder Hamilton Larkin, will hold a lottery next month for the apartments.

Hamilton Larkin Chief Financial Officer Jules Swimmer said the company is already looking at another site in the Santa Clarita Valley for seniors housing.

``Santa Clarita is an excellent market because it's a growth market for young families, and seniors want to be around their families,'' he said. ``They want to be around their grandkids.''

Lennar Communities, the lead developer of Stevenson Ranch, a residential area just outside Santa Clarita's city limits, is also ``seriously considering some type of senior housing,'' said marketing manager Caryn Spencer.

Berens of the Senior Center said other groups have approached him about building other senior facilities.

Any future complex in Santa Clarita may follow the model set by Bouquet Canyon Seniors.

The high-density development is the result of a team effort by Hamilton Larkin and the Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging Corp., the nonprofit parent of the Senior Center.

The committee has agreed to provide a range of services at Bouquet Canyon Seniors, including fitness classes, art classes, counseling, and a shuttle bus between different senior complexes and the Senior Center.

The committee's involvement also played a role in the project getting $5 million in federal tax credits, city support of almost $1 million and low-interest bond financing.

Supporters say the facility is designed to provide a middle ground for seniors.

On one hand, it gives them the independence, and lower costs, of an apartment-style residence. But the arrangement with the Committee on Aging also gives residents access to the services, and safety, of care providers.

``By bringing in the nonprofit, we can charge $600 a month, and they can take whatever services are essential for their well-being,'' said Swimmer of Hamilton Larkin.

Future residents of the facility, which opens in September, must be over age 55 with yearly incomes roughly between $20,000 and $30,000, Swimmer said. One-bedroom units will cost $556 a month. Two-bedroom units will run $669 a months.

Richard Grandinetti is one of several area residents with relatives on the project's waiting list.

He said he prompted his 85-year-old aunt to sign up after she blacked out and fell in her Florida home. A neighbor found her ``after who knows how long,'' Grandinetti said.

The Bouquet Canyon project is particularly attractive, Grandinetti said, because it provides a middle ground between an intensive assisted-living facility and an isolated apartment complex.

``It fits her needs perfectly,'' he said. ``You get too old to be able to take care of your own home, but you don't want to live with a nurse at your elbow.''

Cost was also a major concern.

``We can afford to have her there based on her current income,'' Grandinetti said. ``If we have to go outside that, family members are going to have to help out.''

Valencia resident Scott Larson said his parents are interested in the Bouquet Canyon project, in part, because other complexes are full with long waiting lists.

His parents sold their home several years ago and spend much of their time visiting their children, Larson said.

``They're contemplating where to settle, and this area is where they're thinking of moving,'' he said. The major draws, he said, are the safe environment and a chance to be near their family.

Similar needs have filled most of the 153 units at Canyon Villa Senior Apartments, said owner Herman Shamalta.

``Typically we have a lot of people moving into here because their families are moving to the area,'' he said. ``That's been the case for the last two or three years.''

The surge has helped the complex go from more than 30 vacancies in 1993, when Shamalta first purchased it, to a current average of about one or two a month, he said.

While he acknowledged that the area's rapid growth will eventually lead to more seniors complexes, Shamalta said he thinks there are enough units in the market right now.

The problem, he said, is that prices are too high. Even at relatively affordable levels - under $600 for a one-bedroom unit - many seniors are paying too much of their fixed incomes on rent.

``It's a question of affordability, not availability,'' Shamalta said.

While the influx of young families has heightened the affordable housing shortage here, many American cities are experiencing similar problems.

An estimated 1.5 million seniors are classified in ``worst case need'' by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development because they pay more than one-half of their income for rent or live in severely substandard housing.

And the population is growing. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that one in five Americans will be age 65 or over by 2050, up from one in eight today.

Berens said builders and planners need to prepare for the coming crunch and the growing need for affordable senior housing.

``We're creating a model here,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Santa Clarita Senior Center director Brad Berens points out features on the Bouquet Canyon Seniors apartment project under construction.

(2--Color) (Ran in Business Edition only) Workers focus their attention on the roof of an entryway for the Bouquet Canyon Seniors project, which will provide housing and a range of services.

David R. Crane/Daily News