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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Pool Shark: Lynn Whitson lines up his next shot, while fellow Lincoln Glen Manor residents Jean Guyette and Gene Blanchard look on.
Council approves a plan to build new 31-unit complex
Assisted-living facility will allow elderly residents to remain in local senior home
By Jessica Lyons
More than 140 residents live in Lincoln Glen Manor, a retirement home and nursing facility for seniors. As it stands today, they can only stay there until they are unable to do everyday tasks--like bathing and eating--without help. Then they are forced to move to an assisted-living facility.
"People can live in our nice little apartments until all of the sudden, they need help with their everyday living," says Loren Kroeker, an administrator at the Willow Glen senior home. "We have been discharging on the average between 18 and 30 people to residential care facilities every year".
But by next year, that should change. At its June 1 meeting, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved rezoning to allow Lincoln Glen to add a 31-unit assisted living facility on the existing site.
"We've been trying a long time to put assisted living in here," Kroeker says. "It's a need here and it's a need in San Jose. People are living longer, healthier lives. They don't need nursing, they just need help living."
That's what the new project aims to do. The plans for Lincoln Glen Manor include adding an assisted living facility for seniors who are not capable of independent living, and need assistance bathing, dressing, eating and taking medication. The facility--a two-story building with a basement, totaling 22,751 square feet --consists of 31 studio or one-bedroom units with private baths. It will also include facilities for planned activities, medical examinations and offices. The new facility will be located in the center of the property between the central manor, kitchen and offices and the parking lot on Plummer Avenue.
The assisted living center will increase the number of housing units in Lincoln Glen from the existing 76 to 107.
In April, Lincoln Glen Manor hosted a community meeting to present the project plans and answer questions. All the neighbors expressed support for the project, says Chris Hemingway, policy aid for District 9 Councilmember John Diquisto.
"It's something the city needs, it's affordable, it works with the neighborhood, it's a good project--that's why John [Diquisto] was able to support it," Hemingway says.
Lincoln Glen's Kroeker says the project will cost roughly $2 million to $3 million. He expects groundbreaking will start in mid-October or early November.
The project also will include adding full-time staff to plan activities for the seniors, Kroeker says.
"We'll have everything from games to exercise geared towards geriatrics residents," he says. "West Valley students come down and help the residents do travel logs we have a van to take people on activities, to see the Christmas lights in downtown San Jose in December."
He admits that more than a few Lincoln Glen residents--his father included--have even become pool sharks later on in life.
"People who never picked up a pool stick on their youth--they thought it was a sin--you're be surprised how many pick it up in their old age."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
