Had it not been for efforts by the California Housing Finance Agency, Christian Church Homes and the Sunnyvale Department of Housing and Community Development, they might have lost their homes, too.

What the seniors didn't know was that their complex—less than a block from the shops and restaurants of S. Murphy Avenue and a short walk from the transit station on Evelyn Street—was in danger of attracting attention from developers looking to provide attractive, market-rate housing.

Hilde Drawbaugh—resident and manager of Plaza De La Flores since 1987—said the complex was built in 1982 to provide housing for fixed-income residents of Sunnyvale.

But there was a hitch.

Twenty years ago, developers in partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development built low-cost senior housing around California. At that time the federal government made a 20-year agreement to provide subsidies to developers for the low-income housing. Twenty years later, those agreements are ending, which leaves housing complexes such as Plaza De La Flores at risk of being converted into market-rate housing.

"If the contract had run out, a new buyer would have been free to do what they wanted," Kathy Weremiuk, loan officer for the California Housing Finance Agency, said. "They could have just emptied the building and set rent at market rates."

But thanks to funds from the financing agency and the city of Sunnyvale, Christian Church Homes—which has managed the building since it was built—was able to gather the almost $17 million needed to keep the complex as it is, preserving all of just over 100 units. Funding also came from Proposition 46, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002.

"The seniors were all worried that they'd have to move out if the complex went into different hands than a nonprofit organization," Drawbaugh said.

The city of Sunnyvale gave almost $1 million to the project, and it plans to give an additional $476,000 by the end of the year. The money was set aside by the council in May 2003 as part of the city's efforts to preserve low-income housing in the area.

"The city is committed to providing affordable housing and senior housing, so this is killing two birds with one stone," communications officer John Pilger said. "It's in the city's best interest to preserve affordable, low-income housing."

To live in the complex, residents must be at least 62 years old or in need of wheelchair-accessible rooms, of which there are ten to serve disabled individuals. Drawbaugh said many of the residents are family members of Silicon Valley residents.

Plaza De Las Flores provides a convenient, independent-living situation for the seniors with a small retail area with a salon, physical-therapy clinic and other services on the property.

In addition to preserving their housing, the financing package also extended the Section 8 benefits to the seniors in the complex into the year 2023. Section 8 subsidies, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, enable residents to pay just 30 percent of their income—regardless of how much that is—to live in the complex.

Drawbaugh said the financing also provides funding for structural improvements the building has needed for some time.

"Thanks to folks working together, the complex will stay affordable and well kept for all the seniors living there for another 20 years," Weremiuk said.