At next week’s meeting, the City Council will consider two important action plans for our senior community. (a) Aging In Place home repair program guidelines and agreement with the Habitat for Humanity and (b) AARP Livable action plan. Please see more on these two agenda items below:

Aging in Place Home Repair Program Guidelines and Agreement with Habitat for Humanity

The City Council allocated $300k from ARPA for a home repair program to assist low-income senior homeowners. Staff worked with Habitat for Humanity to develop program guidelines. The Council prioritized seniors living in Lakeland, low-income, and long-time homeowners. Habitat will manage the program with a 10% administrative charge. City staff will provide assistance to applicants, and reports will be submitted monthly. The program will begin on July 1, 2023, and end by December 31, 2026. Only ARPA funding is committed at this time. The City Manager will sign the Operating Agreement and ARPA Sub-Recipient Agreement. At this week’s meeting, the Council will consider approving the program.

Discussion of AARP Livable Community Action Plan

In September 2020, the Mayor and City Council of the City of College Park adopted a resolution to support the city’s application for membership in AARP’s network of age-friendly communities. As a member of this network, College Park created an action plan that addresses various goals to improve the quality of life for seniors, students, and other residents. The city applied for funding from the Prince George’s County Planning Department’s PAMC program to create the action plan, which was approved in May 2021.

Community participation was solicited during the creation of the action plan, and five priority action areas were identified: Housing, Transportation, Communication and Information, Social Participation and Health Services, and Community. The draft Action Plan was presented to the Mayor and Council in June 2022 and received additional stakeholder and staff feedback. The City plans to submit the adopted Action Plan to AARP by June 5, 2023, and implement recommendations over the next three years, ending in June 2026.

The Action Plan will be a working document that guides and prioritizes actions to increase College Park’s livability score.

At next week’s meeting, the City Council will provide feedback and guidance on the final action plan and addendum as presented by the Senior Advisory Community Livable Community Subcommittee so that plan can be adopted and submitted to AARP