Residents Celebrate Summer
CIHA Residents Celebrate Summer
It’s been a lively summer for residents of Cook Inlet Housing Authority’s elder and family rental properties.
Late in 2001, CIHA made resident services a focal point in operations of our rental facilities in an effort to: 1) ensure that residents of our properties were connected to all the community services they need, and 2) to improve their interaction with each other and the overall sense of community within the facilities.
“It’s really common for elders in particular to become isolated, so CIHA wants to provide them with plenty of opportunities to keep their minds and bodies active,” said Mary Chouinard, Manager of Rental Housing. “Many of them don’t have close family who visit them, and by providing opportunities for the residents to get to know each other, they develop their own support network.”
In June CIHA hosted its first annual Luau, complete with grass skirts and hula lessons. Volunteers came to the patio of CIHA’s elder complex in Muldoon on one of the most tropical days of the summer to teach the hula, and a number of the elder ladies weren’t shy about swinging their hips to the music. Those who didn’t dance certainly enjoyed the show.
Things weren’t quite as raucous during the end of school ice-cream social at CIHA’s family rental property, Strawberry Village Cottages. Still, lots of fun was had as CIHA’s CEO Carol Gore, joined by Dan Fauske, CEO of Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Colleen Bickford, State Director for HUD, and John Weicher, Housing Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for HUD, served up more than 50 ice-cream cones on the last day of school.