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Seniors Celebrate Changing Seasons ANDERSON Six years ago, 20 percent of the calls to Anderson police stemmed from these apartments a menacing haven of drug dealing, violence and harassment of elderly neighbors. Today, when the former Anderson Oaks Apartments celebrate a grand reopening, low-income seniors will be the guests of honor. The reincarnated housing complex, Seasons at Los Robles, rose from the Anderson Oaks’ ashes after a coalition of 75 law enforcement officers raided the apartments in February 2000, Anderson Police Chief Neil Purcell said. “We got that place totally closed down, evacuated, and there will never again be another Anderson Oaks Apartments,” he said Monday. In its place, a nonprofit agency called the LINC Housing Corp. made major renovations, tore down a few decrepit buildings, and created what Purcell called “first-class senior apartments.” “It’s had a positive impact on our community and people are very up. Anderson’s moving ahead,” he said. Most of the 58 units have been leased and residents have moved in, LINC President and CEO Hunter Johnson said Monday. “The grand opening is to celebrate those folks being there,” he said. Many apartments in the former complex, built in 1977, had been “red-tagged” in 2000 for extremely dangerous living conditions. Shortly thereafter, the remaining units were emptied, the property boarded up and a bank holding a mortgage initiated foreclosure proceedings. After the Anderson Redevelopment Agency acquired the property, it selected LINC as the developer. Rehabilitation began in 2002, with the first residents moving into Seasons at Los Robles in April. Rents range from $367 to $536 for Seasons’ 14 one-bedroom and 45 two-bedroom units. The complex includes a community room. LINC, which owns and operates 19 senior communities in California, will provide free wellness classes, financial planning, computer training, counseling, movies, bingo and other services and entertainment. At 3:30 p.m. today, Seasons residents, city officials and affordable housing leaders will participate in a dedication, followed by a barbecue. The new atmosphere starkly contrasts the neighborhood’s past, when elderly neighbors feared for their safety, Purcell said. “They were afraid to go out after 7 o’clock at night. They had their porch lights broken time after time,” he said. The former apartment residents' reputation for selling methamphetamine, especially, drew drug buyers from as far as Fresno, Reno, the coast and Klamath Falls, Ore., Purcell said. In 1999, 20 percent of the police department’s calls stemmed from violence, domestic abuse, drug trafficking and other disruptions there, he said. Purcell remembers witnessing drug deals in the open at the apartments. Nearby residents told him horror stories about how no one would buy their homes because of the proximity to the infamous Anderson Oaks. The city has seen a marked change since those days. “We don’t have the tweakers that were so recognizably walking around our streets and in our markets. I’m not saying that meth has been eradicated from our city,” he said, “but we have a cleaner town.” Copyright 2005 Redding Record Searchlight CA |
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