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What was once home to sisters will now be a home to seniors when a closed Willow Glen convent is renovated into a senior community and adult day-care center.
Sisters of the Holy Family is selling its convent located at 1050 Saint Elizabeth Drive to Self Help for the Elderly, a San Franciscobased nonprofit that provides services for the elderly.
At a May 12 San Jose Planning Commission meeting, commissioners unanimously approved the nonprofit's permit request to remodel the 28,223-square-foot building into a multiuse facility that will also include 40 beds for those who require around-the-clock care. Self Help for the Elderly plans to reconfigure the facility into a senior center that will provide meals, English as a second language and citizenship classes, recreational activities and wellness programs and services for as many as 60 senior citizens, according to the nonprofit's administrator Cassandra Chan.
The adult day-care portion of the center will provide rehabilitation therapy, nursing care, recreation, nutrition and medical services.
Self Help for the Elderly serves more than 25,000 seniors each year in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties, but this will be its first foray into Willow Glen. The organization will provide social services and hot meals to low-income and elderly residents. When the nonprofit moves into its new Willow Glen facility, it will also provide unemployment services for those trying to re-enter the job market.
According to Sisters of the Holy Family congregation President Sister Sharon Flannigan, the sale of its facility to Self Help for the Elderly should be complete by the end of June.
"When we knew we would be selling the facility, we wanted to sell it to a group that does good work," Flannigan said. "Self Help for the Elderly will be doing similar work to what was already being done there."
Flannigan says Sisters of the Holy Family built the facility as a convent in the 1960s, but the building was later turned into a residence for sisters. She said Sisters of the Holy Family has decided to sell the building because it doesn't meet the ministry's needs. Many of its residents have already moved to other locations in the Bay Area.
For more information about the conditional-use permit and details of the renovation, visit http://www.ci.san-jose.ca.us.
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