It was 49 years ago that William C. Kelley, Frank A. Burkard and H. William Thornburg sat together one day in a café, and the idea for Trinity Towers was sketched out on a napkin. The idea would require the support of the Melbourne City Council; that happened with the support of Melbourne Mayor Grady W. White and city councilman, George I. Kaufman. Melbourne City attorney, W. Jackson Vaughn also worked on the project. Support was needed in the County Commission; that was provided by Joe Wickham.
New ideas require seed money, and Radiation founder, Homer R. Denius supplied the money to send Frank A. Burkard and attorney Ralph Geilich to Washington D.C. to get funding from the federal government. (Radiation was the predecessor corporation to Harris Corp.)
Paintings of The Rev. Alex Boyer and his wife, Peg Boyer (both deceased) This is the priest and his wife who “started” and sustained Trinity Towers throughout their long lives through hard work and personal philanthropy.
It turned out that the federal government would not approve the project initially, because the U.S. department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considered Melbourne too small a city to sponsor such a project. That is when Fr. Alex Boyer of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church got involved.
Fr. Boyer wrote a memoir of how he got involved in the project. He wrote, “A phone call came into my office telling of an elderly couple who were literally being put out on the street for non-payment of rent. The economy was booming and rising rents made it impossible for this elderly couple to keep up. The caller wanted to know what I was going to do about their needs. The lady was very old and blind. Her husband was a retired newspaper reporter with an alcohol problem. Their income consisted of her Social Security check. I found them the only place that they could afford. It was a converted box car in West Melbourne.”
The idea of an elderly couple having to live in steel box was too much for Fr. Boyer, so he looked into the possibility of subsidized housing through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was told, as the businessmen had already discovered, that Melbourne was considered too small a city for a project. At the time the population of Melbourne was 19,000 people.
Since the city could not get the sponsorship, the idea was floated that perhaps the church might be the sponsor. Fr. Boyer grabbed onto that idea and never let go. He invited a group of downtown businessmen to come to the Vestry (church board) to ask that Holy Trinity sponsor the project. Fr. Boyer writes, “Nine of the Vestry voted to endorse the project. The
horror of government control kept three vestrymen from such a commitment.” It is reported that when these three dissenting Vestry members objected to the federal money, Fr. Boyer replied, “Where else am I going to get two million dollars to build these apartments?”
HUD required the church to raise $40,000 to become the sponsor. A few large donors and several smaller donors quickly provided the money. The sponsorship was awarded to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church with the approval of the Episcopal Diocese of South Florida. W.D. Webb served as the Real Estate broker to assemble the needed tracts of land for Trinity Towers East and Trinity Towers West. Arthur B. Colbert was the Superintendent of Construction and later the first administrator of the Towers.
Trinity Towers East opened with 156 new apartments in April 1969. Over 500 applications poured in. HUD instructed the Trinity Towers Board to request a month’s rent in advance to slow the flood, but applications continued to pour in. Consequently, Trinity Towers West was constructed with 192 apartments, and was opened in November 1971, again with a waiting list. Trinity Towers South, with 162 apartments, opened in 1982 and included a meal program for persons who needed that service.
Until Fr. Boyer died in 2005, Trinity Towers was a project he poured countless hours into serving. His wife, Peg (Margaret Mailly Aspril Boyer), was always supportive and continued as a very active philanthropist to Trinity Towers until her death in 2011.
The building of Trinity Towers South in the early 1980’s was a special challenge requiring community cooperation. Fr. Boyer had a difficult time convincing HUD to build an independent living apartment building with a meal program, but he was absolutely convinced that the meal program would help seniors live longer and with a higher quality of life, and he eventually prevailed. Trinity Towers South is built on leased land owned by the School Board. That was also a special challenge. Margaret Senne, a School Board member at the time, became the key advocate for Trinity Towers South with encouragement from Joe Wickham and county commissioner Richard B. Muldrew.
Over the years there were many challenges with the buildings. The Board of Trinity Towers worked hard to maintain the buildings. Long-serving members of the Board included: William D. Peyraud, who served as Board Secretary for many years, Dr. Oswald Holzer, Dr. Arland Adams, Robert J. Malley, Dr. Thomas Peake, and Barbara Whitley. Tom and Barbara came on the Board at the same time 24 years ago. Tom Peake was one of the most caring Psychologists you could ever meet; he has now passed on to glory. Barbara Whitley, who is with us today, is one of the strongest and most compassionate social workers, I have ever known. Other than Fr. Boyer, she is the Board member who has probably spent more time than any other Board member actually in the Towers meeting with residents.
By 2007 it was becoming very difficult for the volunteer board to oversee the management of the properties. The major challenges included navigating the increasing complexities of HUD regulations. After forty years the buildings also needed long-term maintenance and improvements including sprinkler systems, heating and air-conditioning improvements, plumbing upgrades and new windows.
At first the Board hired a management company to help with the properties, but by 2011 began investigating the possibility of selling the buildings to a national non-profit that could maintain the affordability of these low-income apartments for the elderly, while at the same time recapitalizing the buildings for many decades of future service.
The Board found a wonderful partner in Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH). POAH is a non-profit corporation whose mission is, “to preserve and steward affordable rental housing to provide stability, hope and economic security to low and moderate income individuals and families.” POAH owns and operates close to 8500 apartments on more than 70 properties in nine states and Washington D.C. Since the sale of Trinity Towers to POAH, all three Trinity Towers buildings have been re-financed to help cash-flow, and in addition to that, tax-credit financing on Trinity Towers West is resulting in $9 million in renovations on that building. We will hear from Charlie Adams about that in just a moment.
There is one man who has been part of this story, all the way through. The remembrances in this story are his. He was there when the idea was sketched on the napkin and he is here today: William Thornburg, we thank you! — Faithfully Submitted, Fr. Stephen W. Easterday