Hoag to donate $3.77 million for new Huntington senior center
Hoag Hospital had a pleasant surprise for Huntington Beach on Monday: The Newport Beach-based facility will make a $3.775 million donation toward the city’s long-awaited new senior center.
About $2 million will go toward the cost of building the roughly $21.5 million project, while the rest will fund programs and services over five years, officials said during an announcement at the current Rodgers Seniors’ Center.
“It was much more than I was anticipating,” Huntington Mayor Matthew Harper said. “This really shows Hoag’s commitment to Huntington Beach. With their newly expanded facility [near Beach Boulevard and Yorktown Avenue], it’s very clear that they’re looking to be a community partner.”
Councilman Jim Katapodis said he thought the donation would be around $2.5 million and was pleased that Hoag put in more.
The donation will play a big part in financing the new senior center, which is planned for the west side of Central Park. The City Council voted in August to authorize a $16.4 million bond to help pay for the facility. About $4.5 million from the general fund also may be used.
The donation also will help fund the center’s free transportation service, home-delivered meals, free clinical assessments and staffing for Project Self Sufficiency, which helps low-income single parents become economically stable.
“Traditionally, we have partnered with the city with those programs, and this is an opportunity for us to expand that partnership and look at holistic health and wellness programs,” said Michaell Rose, director of operations for Hoag’s department of community health. “We’ll be partnering with Hoag Medical Group and looking at how we can bring some of their in-kind services for the seniors.”
The hospital has aided Huntington Beach before. It helped finance construction of the Alzheimer’s Family Services Center on Indianapolis Avenue and supports a mobile clinic that serves the Oak View neighborhood on weekends, said Michael Stephens, chairman of the hospital’s community benefits committee.
“[Hoag and the city of Huntington Beach] have been a partner for decades and it’s only going to continue,” he said. “They do a good job at identifying the needs for seniors, and it makes it easier for us to identify what we’re funding and what the outcomes are going to be.”
An impediment to the project is a longstanding lawsuit involving the city and the Parks Legal Defense Fund, a residents group that has argued since 2008 that the project’s environmental impact report was insufficient.
City Atty. Jennifer McGrath has said she expects the matter to be resolved by the end of the year.
“We’ve got to move straight ahead,” Katapodis said. “I think we’re going to win that lawsuit and it’s not going to be an issue.”
The city is planning a groundbreaking ceremony for the new senior center at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Goldenwest Street and Talbert Avenue in Central Park.