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The city of Midvale is creating affordable housing for people who feel they've looked everywhere to find it. When Tuscany Villas opened its doors, the apartment complex filled rapidly. Shortly after the facility opened, Manager Clark Hunt said "If I had three more of these buildings today I could fill them all up tomorrow. It's just something that is a huge need that I wish we had more of in all communities around the valley here."

A lot of seniors are scouring their communities to find a place like Tuscany Villas. "Every place that I tried to go into they had a two-year waiting list and they were [charging] quite a bit more a month than what I'm paying here," according to senior citizen DeLite Wilkerson.
Nicquita Fairbanks adds, "We, the baby boomers, are in the aging process. We all have a 'then' and we have a now." She once had a lucrative business, but at her husband's health worsened, she decided to care for him full time. Limited to a wheelchair, their last apartment didn't provide the necessary features for him to get around. "You're used to living a certain lifestyle and when that's taken away, it's pretty hard," Nicquita Fairbanks said. Her husband, Mike, added, "This is good enough that we can afford to stay here inevitably."

Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini said, "This is an answer to a prayer to me as a mayor of a community where I see many people like this who are needing housing who have limited incomes but whose quality of life needs to be appropriate. They don't need to be sheltered only they need to be sheltered and valued."
"I just needed something more open and someplace my dog was welcome," according to senior resident Joan Robbins. She says she was looking everywhere for a place she could live comfortably with her little dog. She got word of a complex in Midvale under construction and got here as soon as she could to get on the list. "I didn't dream this was going to be this beautiful."

There are income limits that residents have to meet to qualify to live here and rent is essentially guaranteed from the day they move in. Robbins said, "And I'm so happy to be here."
Utah's land use development management act requires communities to create an affordable housing element in their long-term general plans. It's up to each city or town to enact zoning provisions to create housing options for residents from cradle to grave- a range of housing opportunities for all stages of life. Municipalities are offered federal and state incentives to create housing for people from all walks of live building healthy communities where borders do not divide the "haves" and "have-nots."

In Midvale, this housing complex is in the heart of a walkable community where there are parks and trails, thriving businesses, shopping, and entertainment. "Every community needs to look at this as a model," according to Mayor Seghini. "This is the kind of place that our seniors deserve, that they need, and that allows them to be productive citizens in whatever their community happens to be. This is the standard." It's a standard that allows seniors to live in comfort in a community, with abundant care from families and neighbors.
"When I came into this apartment," Wilkerson explained, "I thought to myself, you know, I think Im home. And then when Clark took me into my apartment on the third floor, I walked in there and I was home. I was home."
Read more from the Utah League of Cities and Towns on DeseretNews.com or visit their website at ulct.org.