Touring the grounds of a historic textile mill in Marion, North Carolina, on March 12, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, flanked by Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11), executives of LeadingAge member Givens Communities and Juliana Bilowich of LeadingAge’s national office,  learned how a redevelopment project, financed through a combination of federal and state investment, including HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program, will ultimately yield hundreds of new homes for low-income older adults.

“We house many retired teachers, nurses, home makers, retail workers, service providers, These are your neighbors–the people who have served you all your life, who sit beside you on church pews, your friends and relatives who worked really hard but did not always make enough to save a lot–but who lived in and served this community,” Givens’ Vice President of Affordable Communities and tour lead Teresa Stevens, who has spearheaded the project over the past three years explained to the Secretary, Representative Edwards, and the roughly 50 attendees of the half-day event.

Added her boss and Givens Communities’ CEO Kevin Schwab at press conference following the tour, “Housing is healthcare. And if prevention is the best medicine, then safe, stable housing may be the most powerful and least expensive prescription we have.”

The redevelopment, funded in part via $11 million award from HUD, is projected to bring 141 new units online by 2028.  Rents in 85 of the forthcoming units will be allocated to older adults with extremely low incomes. An additional 36 elderly designated units will be moderately affordable and financed through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), along with historic tax credits and similar funding sources, leaving 20 unsubsidized units at market rate. The new housing community will also feature critical community space, as well as a clinic and wellness center.

The project represents a major infusion of investment capital in an area hit especially hard by Hurricane Helene in 2024. Givens’ Stevens shared with Secretary Turner that the mill redevelopment will take a significant “bite” out of the housing needs in the county.

During a walk-through tour of the mill’s warehouse-style first floor, HUD Secretary Turner paused at a life-sized visualization of the forthcoming affordable homes showing the taped-out floorplan and chalked description of the square footage. “My grandmother would have loved this,” he said of the modest unit layout featuring space for a future window carved out of the brick walls.

The project is particularly noteworthy considering the scarcity of funding for deeply affordable senior housing through the Section 202 program, the linchpin for all other financing in the mill redevelopment project and similar housing projects across the country.

With the help of LeadingAge and others, Givens Communities worked through HUD’s funding application process for three years to access the highly competitive funding, aided during the process by LeadingAge’s national team. Juliana Bilowich, vice president, housing policy, shared with attendees the importance of federal investment in serving older adults with extremely low incomes, now and into the future, observing, “Congress has not appropriated funding for new Section 202 projects in the past three annual appropriations cycles, leaving thousands of communities without much-needed housing support.”

LeadingAge is pushing hard for lawmakers to recommit to the highly successful service-enriched housing program. View our priorities for 2026, including revived funding for Section 202, Service Coordination, and new special purpose housing vouchers for older adults, here.