By David Gordon, associate editor
The clash between Mayo Clinic’s expansion needs and Eau Claire’s insufficient supply of housing for the elderly and disabled has so far provided no indication of common ground to resolve the competing interests.
A mid-September meeting between Mayo officials and representatives of groups concerned about the housing shortage failed to produce agreement on how to deal with the housing needs of the 44 tenants at Luther Lakeside Apartments, 1422 Whipple St. The location is across the street from the west side of Mayo’s main campus in Eau Claire, and kies between it and the Chippewa River.
The housing advocates at the meeting included representation from the JONAH Affordable Housing Task Force core team, Western Dairyland, the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department and Landmark Corp., which manages the property. They urged Mayo to reconsider its decision not to renew its contract with HUD but, rather, to continue to provide housing at that location.
Judi Mosely, co-chair of the Affordable Housing Task Force, said in a JONAH press release that the community currently faces “an affordable housing crisis,” with nearly 500 fewer housing units than are needed. Losing the Whipple Street units is significant “and may have dire consequences for the tenants affected, especially in light of inflationary impacts on seniors’ fixed income budgets.”
Susan Wolfgram, the other task force co-chair, said that Mayo’s decision to close the apartment units was a surprise, especially “given the strong community partner that Mayo has been.” She added that the medical organization apparently has not sought community input in regard to alternative options.
“It is not too late for Mayo leadership to choose another option in the best interest of the residents and our community,” she said. “However, time is not on the residents’ side.”
Mayo’s stance
Mayo’s stance on the issue is based on the “considerable demand on clinical service space at this site.” In a recent email to the Chippewa Valley Post, Jason Craig noted that Mayo was seeing the current housing use through to the end of the 40-year lease for that purpose. He said that Mayo “will transition away from a new leasing contract to better focus on what we do best, providing and expanding health care to meet the needs of our community.”
Craig, who is regional chair of administration for Mayo Clinic Health System in northwest Wisconsin, said several health care options are under consideration for the property but no final decision has been made. He also noted that Mayo gave tenants at the apartments a one-year notice of the transition plans on June 30 and is “committed to working together with residents to ease this transition.”
Mayo has also arranged with Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council to assist current residents as they seek alternative housing and finalize plans to move, “and we have provided each tenant with $2,500 to help with expenses,” Craig wrote. “A number of tenants have already found new housing,” he said, and added that “we will continue to work with the remaining tenants.”
JONAH’s position
Rev. David Huber, JONAH’s president, said that the organization “stands ready to advocate for all tenants in need of safe, affordable housing and is willing to continue collaboration to discuss the options that were presented at the Sept. 13 meeting.”
Mosely said that juxtaposed against the community’s medical services needs are its affordable housing needs, especially for low income, elderly and disabled residents like the tenants at Luther Lakeside apartments. the housing task force has been advocating for increased affordable housing, “and we have been gratified to see developers stepping up to the plate and propose new multi-family units, some of them designated for low income and/or elderly tenants.
“But the process is incredibly slow, and it may be three years or more before any of those additional units are available to renters,” she said.
“Mayo should not be creating a competition between housing for the elderly and disabled, and cancer treatment for patients,” she added. “There is room for both.”
Wolfgram said that Mayo’s mission statement — to contribute to health and well-being by providing the best care through integrated clinical practice, education and research – doesn’t square with the decision to close Luther Lakeside.
“What the research tells us is that access to safe, quality, affordable housing – and the supports necessary to maintain that housing – constitute one of the most basic and powerful social determinants of health,” she said. “For individuals and families trapped in a cycle of housing instability, in this case due to low income, advanced age and the accompanying chronic health conditions – as well as those with a disability – housing can entirely dictate a person’s health and health trajectory.”
Housing vouchers might be a way to increase the affordable housing supply, according to the JONAH press release. This federal subsidy program typically caps renters’ payments at 30% of their monthly income, but the vouchers often go unused because recipients can’t find landlords willing to take – or, sometimes, to renew leases for – voucher tenants.
The JONAH statement also noted the relationship between housing insecurity and health, and said that “housing and health partners have been working together across the country to close the housing affordability gap.”
Sheryl M. Grace says
Mayo ends housing because Mayo needs more room? Then why is Mayo ending services such as the obstetrics /delivery and drastically reducing internal medicine availability at other communities’ Mayo hospitals/clinics and moving them to Eau Claire.? Risking less than ideal birthing if not life threatening distance delays in access for care.?
I don’t buy the employee shortage excuse. If doctors, nursing and other staff are treated with the same care that Mayo professes their patients get or used to get then they won’t have shortages.
Mayo doesn’t need to eliminate housing for more room. What Mayo -Eau Claire needs is to quit sucking the life out of available services at their rural communities.