Seniors in the city

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 | 10:54 a.m.

Martin Basichas emerged from his second-floor apartment Monday afternoon leading his dog, Bo, down a quiet corridor into a room packed with more than 100 civic leaders and speech makers.

Bo growled at the suits he could see as he approached the grand opening hoopla under way at Stewart Pines Apartments before Basichas took him out for a walk around their new home.

"They keep this place immaculate," said Basichas, who shares a two-bedroom apartment in the new affordable senior housing complex with his wife, Mary, and their aging white pooch. "The grounds are beautiful and its really turned us around on Las Vegas."

Las Vegas is hoping the first of its kind development at 14th Street and Stewart Avenue will help turn around downtown housing and spark continued redevelopment of the city's aging inner core.

The 72-unit complex features a library with Internet access, a nurses station, barber shop, gymnasium and an outdoor courtyard centered around a fountain.

For many of the new residents, Stewart Pines is a godsend this Thanksgiving.

"After my husband passed away in September I couldn't afford our old apartment," said Margie Underwood, 65, who pays $321 a month for her Stewart Pines home. "This is just so nice, and so safe."

A photo of Underwood's late husband, Kenneth, captures the afternoon sunlight pouring in from the living room window in her apartment.

Each unit comes with full kitchen appliances, cable-ready television hook-up and laundry facilities.

But more than the amenities and the low cost, the complex offers hope that private-public partnerships can build more developments like it for a growing senior population on waiting lists for affordable housing.

"I hope that we do have a lot more grand openings in the city," said City Councilman Gary Reese, who was lauded at Monday's official grand opening of the complex for helping bring the development to his ward.

"The tenaciousness of his efforts is what brought us here," said Mike Mullins, president and CEO of Nevada HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) Inc.

Nevada HAND teamed up with the city, the state division of housing, Wells Fargo Bank and the Fannie Mae Foundation to transform Stewart Pines from a broken glass-speckled vacant lot to an affordable home for 250 seniors.

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she would support legislation to ease restrictions on low-income housing tax credits. Tax credits issued by the state Division of Housing to private partners like banks and nonprofit groups helped allow Stewart Pines to open with an average rent of $321 a month.

"This is a wonderful feather in the cap of this community," Berkley said.

After about an hour's worth of speeches from various civic leaders, residents helped themselves to a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings and sat around outdoor tables sharing Thanksgiving plans and stories with their neighbors.

Mayor Oscar Goodman toured the complex Monday with Reese, newly appointed Councilmen Lawrence Weekly and Michael Mack and representatives of the city's Neighborhood Services Department.

"It's so important that everybody has pride in where they live," Goodman said. "Everybody that lives here has to be so happy that they live here."

"We are!" yelled several women seated in the back of the crowded room.

During a recent tour of San Francisco, Goodman and city staff saw affordable housing units adjacent to market-rate housing with no noticeable difference between the two.

Six blocks away from Stewart Pines, the Tom Hom Group is finishing work on a new single-room-occupancy development called Campaige Place, set to open in February.

With its location adjacent to the Arturo Cambeiro Senior Center, Stewart Pines residents will have easy access to activities and programs.

Reese said he is hopeful he can entice developers to consider building a grocery store or retail center in the vicinity. So far, he said, he has been laughed away by some developers who don't think downtown is the place to build.

"Five years ago they said this place couldn't get built," Reese said. "Just look at it."

The three-story structure has the feel of a Spanish villa, not the typical bare-boned facade associated with many affordable housing complexes.

Eileen Shipman moved in to her second-floor apartment last month and is already thrilled with her new home.

"It's so clean and safe," Shipman said. "I already love it here."