It’s no secret that finding affordable housing is getting more difficult to find in the Sandusky area, but there’s a new project under way that should see about 20 brand new apartments become available in the next two years. And the units will be designated for one of the most-deserving segments of renters: senior citizens.
The former
Osborne Elementary School building, which was closed in 2021 after Sandusky City Schools built three new facilities, has sat vacant since. The city purchased it from the district in Oct. 2023 for $100,000. Previously, appraisals had listed the building’s value in excess of $200,000. But recently the city sold the building to Columbus-based
Community Building Partners (CBP) for the same price it paid.
“Our role is to help those who live in Erie County at age 60 or older to maintain their health and functional independence,” explains Sue Daugherty with
Serving Our Seniors. “So if you can take care of your health, we want to help you so you can continue to do that.”
And, she said, that includes helping older folks to find affordable apartments.
“In Sandusky we have a lot of very large, older homes that have multiple apartments in them but they’ve been flipped to AirBnbs and VRBOs (short-term rentals for visitors and vacationers). The city has about 300 transient rentals in the city, but that could be homes for 300 older adults.”
Many seniors sacrificed financially raising children and helping family members and are now in positions where they can’t afford skyrocketing rents. While some receive private pensions, others live only on Social Security payments.
“I know older adults now who have walked up to me and told me they’re looking to move because rent for a two-bedroom apartment is now over $1,000 monthly,” Daugherty says. “’I’m going to food pantries to stretch my dollars and I’m not poor, so I don’t qualify for any low-income housing but I can’t afford over $1,000 a month.’”
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Memories of Osborne School FacebookAccording to Daugherty, among working and retired seniors a large portion of the area’s population are just above the gross income limit of $31,900, which disqualifies them for any government housing subsidies. Those folks are forced to pay market rate for rents, which could be up to $1,500 for an apartment. So smaller, inexpensive apartments are in high demand for seniors – especially those too “rich” to receive help.
In addition, according to Daugherty, there are no new mobile home parks being developed or planned in the area. Those parks often provide affordable purchase prices for mobile homes and lot rents for lower-income households. And two such parks, one in Huron and one in Sandusky, recently were closed.
In a recent Firelands region housing
study by Bowen National Research, it was found that Erie County has a gap of 1,637 rental units between what is needed for area residents and what is available. Including Huron and Ottawa counties, that number is nearly 4,200 rental units.
The deal between Sandusky and CBP will be sweetened by a $750,000 grant from the city, which it received as part of a package of grants from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act. A $3.59 million grant received by Sandusky is part of a larger $29.5 million funding package received by the state aimed at buying land, building new homes, renovating existing homes and other projects to promote affordable housing in Ohio.
“It was a project we had been working on for a couple years to see how we could re-use the building,” explains City of Sandusky City Planner Arin Blair. “There’s a perception of short-term rentals being an issue in the city, but the Firelands Forward Housing study shows that Erie County is short about 4,000 housing units (including homes for sale) overall, so definitely we know that people are having trouble.”
She said renovations to Osborne, which was built of stone and is structurally in good condition, will include an elevator, sprinkler system and all requirements for the Americans with Disabilities Act. And it will also retain much of its history. The building was constructed in 1890 and is approximately 30,000 square feet.
“It will adhere to the Secretary of the Interior’s standards of historic preservation,” Blair assures. “We have a really strong historic preservation nomenclature in Sandusky, so our architecture is really important to us and we’re always going to be looking at how buildings can be given new life even if they need to be adapted or made workable to a new, modern use.”
She cited the
Chesapeake Lofts on Shoreline Drive as an example of the city helping to preserve a large historic building. It was constructed as an industrial site in the 1920s. After sitting vacant in recent decades, the brick building, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, eventually was developed into nearly 200 waterfront condominiums.
While the Osborne School building will be completely renovated, it will always be Osborne School to many.
“There’s a playground there and we’ve worked with the developer to ensure it will stay and be accessible to children in the area or for grandchildren visiting their grandparents,” Blair says. “It’s in a neighborhood so we had a meeting there and an open house so people could walk through the building and we also invited teachers who used to teach there.”
According to Blair, when teachers retired, they were invited to sign a brick wall inside the building. In yet-to-be determined fashion, the signatures of all the retired teachers will be incorporated in the new interior design to honor the building’s people and its past.
“It’s definitely a beloved structure in the city and it was kind of fun to meet folks that spent their career there and spent a lot of time in that building,” she says.
According to CBP, renovation should begin in spring 2025. No information is yet available on applications for the new apartments.
Daugherty says her organization serves as a catalyst for connecting seniors to modest housing and hopes this will help alleviate some of the shortages in the area. She encourages people to reach out to her if interested or to find out more.
“If people are willing to live modestly meaning no attached garage, granite countertops or walk-in closets, and probably 500 – 600 square feet, we are maintaining a list of those people,” she says.