Community Properties welcomes home residents of 1200 Michigan Avenue

October 22, 2004— Senior citizens on Oct. 22, 2004, celebrated their return home to the apartment building at 1200 Michigan Ave. after its extensive renovation over the past year. Community Properties of Ohio Management Services (CPOMS) sponsored the celebration to mark the substantial completion of the first of about 200 buildings to be renovated over the next two to three years. The 1200 Michigan Ave. building is a former elementary school which was converted about 25 years ago to project-based, Section 8 apartments for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Located in the Harrison West neighborhood, the building contains 34 apartments. This latest rehabilitation includes about $50,000 in improvements to each unit. During the celebration, Rachel Ankrum, who was raised in the neighborhood and who moved into the building in 1993, spoke on behalf of the residents. She told visitors that she had not wanted to move to other senior citizens housing during the year-long renovation process. “I’m 84 years old, and I don’t like change,” she said. But when she first saw her building after the renovation work, she said that she declared, “Oh, it’s beautiful. Everything is clean and new. This is my home, and this is where I should be.”

Rachel Ankrum in her apartment at 1200 Michigan Avenue. Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy thanks residents and stakeholders for their support in the renovation of the building.

Other residents confirmed that they were delighted with the quality of the renovation. Three residents offered tours of their apartments, showing off new bathrooms, kitchens, windows and other amenities. Isabel Toth, president of CPOMS, presented the residents with a television and VHS and DVD players on a rolling cart so they can gather in the building’s common spaces to watch programs and movies. Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy welcomed the residents back to the building on behalf of the local, state and federal government partners whose support led to the acquisition and renovation of this housing.

Home | News | History & Organization | Committees | Contact

Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment, Inc.
1824 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43201
(614) 294-7300; fax (614) 294-7333