By Terry Bailey
A dozen interested citizens gathered in the Community Room at the First Bank Thursday morning, February 9th. The stated reason for the meeting was housing needs of senior citizens. That initial topic transformed into a general discussion of housing needs for all folks living in Beloit.
In his opening remarks, City Manager Jason Rabe commented, "What are the housing needs for the citizens of Beloit? What are people looking for?"
Rabe added, "We would like to see some type of domino effect where senior citizens choose to scale down from a two- or three-bedroom home to something less demanding. As the senior citizens move into small accommodations, this would open up their homes for purchase by younger families who want to move up from a starter house. As these folks move up to larger homes, this would open up starter home for younger families."
This opened up the question of what kinds of residences would the older folks find attractive? In many cases folks might have had gardens and lawns and flower beds to tend to, but they have lost interest in that. The same could be said for minor home repairs. At one point Mr. or Mrs. Fixit looked forward to a list of home repair projects. Like the lawn and flower beds the challenge or the myriad of jobs is no longer an attractive expenditure of time.
Emily Benedick, Community Economic Director, has compiled a very basic assortment of residential settings that may or may not meet the needs of Beloit seniors. These options included duplexes, quadplexes and multiple family settings.
It soon became evident that with the 12 folks attending the meeting, there were "12 different opinions of what we need in Beloit." Jim Gates summed up the situation by saying, "We all have wants that exceed our financial ability to realize."
Everyone agreed that the recent surge in inflation has ballooned the costs of housing to record highs. Individual financial capacities will drive the choices people are able to manage. Many people will find the answer to what they can afford and what they want a difficult question to answer.
This meeting was an initial get together to start a long and challenging process of matching up people with a home that fits their needs. The process will continue.