Quietly nestled off of Lakeshore road in Fort Gratiot is the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan Lake Huron Woods campus. More than 100 seniors currently call this campus home and nearly 50 more receive services through the new Sunrise PACE facility on the campus. But Presbyterian Villages of Michigan is on a mission to serve more than 400 local seniors at this location.
“It’s hard for low income seniors to stay local with their friends, family and church as they age because housing and healthcare are just too expensive,” said Michele Vilas, Director of Sunrise Pace at Lake Huron Woods.
This is where the Port Huron Housing Commission, Region VII Area Agency on Aging and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan are coming together to help more of our local seniors find quality housing and healthcare services that they can truly afford through the Lake Huron Woods campus. They are hopeful our community sees how great of a need we have for local seniors and will help them reach a $3.8M fundraising goal.
Recognizing the need for a local presence for donations, the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan Foundation opened a Lake Huron Woods charitable fund with the Community Foundation in hopes of the community learning more about this growing need and stepping up to support the Campaign for the Ages by donating to the new fund.
This new “agency designated” endowment fund is one of dozens managed by the Community Foundation that help provide long-term and ongoing support to nonprofits throughout St. Clair County. A full list of those funds can be found here.
“It’s been five years in the making to bring a program and construction plan to our community to fill a need, which is affordable housing and healthcare for our seniors,” said Jim Dewey, Port Huron Housing Commission.
“We approached Presbyterian Villages of Michigan to see if they could bring their Sunrise PACE program and all-inclusive care options to St. Clair County to help us begin tackling the need for more affordable senior housing and care.”
In Michigan alone, the number of seniors is projected to rise 38%, from 1.5 million in 2014 to 2 million in 2031. With over 17% of seniors in poverty, Michigan exceeds the national average for how many seniors live on less than $12,000 each year. The rising senior population, coupled with the greater number of seniors with lower incomes, will burden current services for seniors with more requests than our systems can currently accommodate.
The Lake Huron Woods campus is expanding to provide affordable aging in place and assisted living and healthcare options for local seniors. The Sunrise PACE center is open and operating on the campus now as an alternative to living in a nursing home and allows a senior that is able to remain at home the transportation to and from the center to receive affordable healthcare and socializing all in one place.
The current Lake Huron Woods campus has 116 units serving residents that range in age from 86-89 years old and nearly all have an annual income that is below $10,000 per year
The housing options to be built in the next few phases of construction on the campus are all geared to be truly affordable or subsidized. These options for seniors range from independent living apartments to ranch homes to assisted living.
These opportunities will come to fruition through The Campaign for the Ages at Lake Huron Woods. This campaign aims to raise $3.8M for support of the local campus to:
• Increase capacity to serve 3.5x more local seniors, that would be 414 seniors total
• Provide truly affordable housing and healthcare options
• Create 106 new permanent health care jobs
With your support of Campaign for the Ages Lake Huron Woods, older adults with low
incomes can have a good home and the health care they deserve.
Learn more about Lake Huron Woods here or find more information about the Campaign for the Ages at Lake Huron Woods here.
Presbyterian Villages of Michigan (PVM) was founded in 1945 by the Presbytery of Detroit, and is a faith-based, multi-site, charity that serves seniors of all faiths. PVM became a freestanding, separate organization in 1989. Today, PVM serves 10,000 older adults throughout the state. Which includes housing (market rate and affordable) and home/community based services. PVM is committed to keeping Michigan seniors in the state of Michigan. The Village of Lake Huron Woods campus is on 64 acres and currently offers two independent living options for seniors.