By Thea Jarvis, Staff Writer

ATLANTA--St. Joseph Place, the archdiocese’s second residence for low-income elderly, is currently under construction in southwest Atlanta and is expected to be completed this summer.

Catholic Housing Initiatives (CHI), one of five programs administered by archdiocesan Catholic Charities, is overseeing the project on a six-acre tract of land given to CHI by the archdiocese over five years ago.

The new facility, on property adjacent to the Village of St. Joseph and Blessed Sacrament Parish, will consist of 48 one-bedroom units in a complex of 11 separate one-story buildings. One building will house offices and a community room. The remaining buildings will be patio-style apartments with a fully-equipped kitchen, full bath, living area and separate bedroom.

Good Shepherd Place in Cumming, the first archdiocesan foray into low-income housing for people over 55, was completed in 1993 and has 48 units in one large three-story structure.

Prospective residents of St. Joseph Place can be married couples or single occupants 55 or older and must be qualified as low income according to guidelines by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is funding the project.

Carroll Sterne, Secretary for Catholic Charities in the archdiocese and president of CHI, said he expects St. Joseph Place to be finished in late July.

After receiving a HUD grant for the proposed residence in October 1993, CHI finalized plans with Foley Design Associates and J.S.C. Contracting, Inc. Ground was broken in October 1994. The property has now been graded and slabs for the buildings are being poured.

“It was a long process to get it up and running,” said Sterne, who believes the residence can fill the expanding needs of an older population still able to maintain private living arrangements but limited by low and fixed incomes.

“The definition of elderly is 55 years old,” he said, so “a lot of these ‘elderly’ are very active, still going.” Locating independent, high-functioning residents near a worship community like Blessed Sacrament can only enhance both groups, he feels.

“We’ve wanted to do a development adjacent to a parish because we think there’s a real tie-in between the two,” Sterne said.

In addition to independent housing for people over 55, Catholic Charities also operates three facilities for frail elderly unable to live on their own. Marian Manor in Atlanta, St. Thomas Manor, East Point and St. Teresa Manor in Riverdale are personal care homes offering supervised living arrangements for a maximum of 15 residents at each. Bedrooms are separate, but the living and dining areas, including the chapel, are shared and meals provided.

For information on St. Joseph or Good Shepherd Place, contact Marylou Scruggs, assistant director of CHI, at 881-6571. For Catholic Personal Care Home information, call Sister Helen Mick, CSJ, at 669-0143.