Upgrades to Senior Living Facilities Planned for Fall

Two of the senior living facilities operated by Cardinal Ritter Senior Services (CRSS) are set to receive upgrades this fall.

CRSS representative Kevin Klingerman told the Shrewsbury Board of Aldermen Tuesday at a board work session that the start of construction had been delayed but was expected to begin “no later than October.”

The two facilities, Holy Infant and St. Joseph apartments, are located on Watson Road. The project aims to improve the older Section 8 housing by converting existing one-room efficiencies into one-bedroom apartments and adding other amenities. As an example, Klingerman said some units will have showers put in to replace bathtubs, which “(don’t) work real well with seniors.”

Klingerman said the cost of rent for the tenants at Holy Infant and St. Joseph is set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and will not change. He described the improvements as a response to market demands and explained that CRSS receives less in federal subsidies for efficiencies than one bedrooms.

When the apartments were built, they were required by HUD to have a set amount of units as efficiencies, Klingerman said, a requirement that was removed in the early 1990s. He said funds for the improvements were recently acquired through tax incentives and loan refinancing.

The project brought CRSS before the Shrewsbury Board of Aldermen nearly a year ago to ask for a special use permit for the construction, which the board granted. With the permit set to expire soon and work still not started, the board voted Tuesday to extend the permit for another year.

The vote was performed on the same night as its first reading. Mayor Felicity Buckley said she regretted using such an expedited process, but it was necessary since the ordinance was time sensitive.