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Housing & Community
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Affordable Housing Program Success Stories
The Bowens are ‘Sitting on Top of the World’
Or at least, a very pleasant hilltop. For Mary and Clyde Bowen, Knollview Village, a 48-unit community for seniors perched on a five-acre knoll in St. Albans, West Virginia, is now home. The Bowens moved into Knollview Village in February 2006 when Clyde, then 82, was dealing with a knee replacement and had found that maintaining the couple’s three-bedroom home and yard in nearby Hurricane was simply too trying.
Sponsored by Charleston, WV’s Religious Coalition for Community Renewal and funded in part with a $288,000 Affordable Housing Program grant from FHLBank, made through WesBanco Bank, Inc., Knollview Village features an equal number of one- and two-bedroom units for low- and very-low-income elderly. Six units address special-needs individuals. A community room, library and courtyard round out the amenities, and there’s a shopping plaza just down the hill.
The Bowens have taken a shine to socializing in the community room. “We have bingo, church services on Tuesday evenings, quilting, and once a month we have a community dinner. We’ve made several new, good friends,” Mary Bowen reports. “And in the morning it’s beautiful. Deer come up over the hill.
“We also have all kinds of exercise machinery, but it’s not possible for me to use it with my arthritis,” Mary adds. But she does use the computer room from time to time to communicate with one of her children, a son in North Carolina.
Rent at Knollview Village runs $395 for a single, $495 for a double. “We love it,” gushes Mary, as she and Clyde sit on top of their world.
For more information on Knollview Village, contact manager Kelly Tinsley at 304-727-1335.
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