Request for seniors' data raises issue of policy on out-of-towners
By Mary B. Pasciak, Buffalo News Staff Reporter

When Jean Deahn retired, she wanted to move closer to her daughter, Susan, and granddaughter, Cheyenne, who live in Blasdell.

So Deahn sold her home in Akron and got a tidy little one-bedroom place in the Carnation Apartments in Orchard Park, an easy 4.5-mile drive to have dinner, make applesauce or just visit with them.

"It's been a good move for me all around," she said.

Deahn is a spirited woman, quick to crack jokes, eager to chat with her neighbors and happy to brag about Susan, 12-year-old Cheyenne, and Deahn's son, Tom, who coaches for Temple University.

She also may be just the sort of person whom some Orchard Park officials are trying to keep out of their community - a retiree on a fixed income who is not from Orchard Park.

A local nonprofit group, People Inc., asked the town's Planning Board this summer to rezone a piece of land so it could build 43 affordable apartments for senior citizens, much like the one where Deahn lives.

The answer: No.

The reason?

Many of the senior citizens likely would not be from Orchard Park.

Town officials went so far as to send People Inc. a letter, asking for the ZIP codes of all the residents of Carnation Apartments, which is one of 16 such senior citizen buildings that the nonprofit owns in the region.

That was a red flag for People Inc.

Click here to read the rest of the Buffalo News article, "Orchard Park taken to task over housing"

Click here to read the commentary, "Donn Esmonde: In Orchard Park, elitism turns absurd"