COLUMBUS (WCMH) — A private non-profit organization, Homeport has dedicated themselves to the community for 30 years as they try to keep residential areas affordable. A ribbon cutting was held Monday afternoon to honor one of their newest accomplishments called Victorian Heritage – a 34 bedroom apartment building for seniors.

President and CEO of Homeport, Bruce Luecke wants to make sure the area is taken care of “It’s tough when you’re paying a lot for housing you can’t pay for other things like education healthcare or food so the more we can do to keep rent affordable the more that we will do”. “There’s 54,000 households here in central Ohio of people making $30,000 or less better pay more than 50% of their income on housing and so we need to do even more”

Linda Bettac doesn’t know where she’d be without Homeport, “A lot of us we get just Social Security we don’t have enough money to live anywhere else”

Linda Grew up in the area and has seen a huge change for the better, “When we were kids this was total slums, it was really run down bad. There were houses that we would run through yards and call them haunted houses. It’s just changed a lot it’s just beautiful over here now. It’s just amazing it really is”.

Seniors like Joey Lascola at Victorian Heritage are excited for the convenience of this location, “An affordable place you have the bus line outside and the Kroger’s across the street we have an elevator that’s the best”. “Senior citizens like me can afford to have a nice place to live”

Luecke added that part of quality of life is being able to be around amenities, “so we really need to be able to make sure that’s there for them when we build…. We need to continue to grow and to build”.

So what’s next for homeport? Developing 66 units in Whitehall to provide more affordable housing for families in that area. Along with two other properties in the process.