With a bustling population of 16,00 people, the small West Tennessee town of Dyersburg is home to St. Joseph Village.
St. Joseph is a HUD Section 202/8 property that houses low and extremely low-income residents aged 62 and over. It was built and placed in service in the 1980s and has been a mainstay in Dyersburg for senior retirement. St. Joseph was built and run by the Catholic Diocese of Memphis until 2012, when it was acquired by Wesley Housing Corporation of Memphis, now known as Wesley Living.
St. Joseph Village’s staff and Wesley Living’s commitment make it a true Community of Quality. St. Joseph has the same staff they had when Wesley Living acquired the property in 2012. The property manager at that time is now the regional asset manager, and the current manager has been at St. Joseph for five years. The maintenance technician has been at St. Joseph for an impressive 25 years, and the service coordinator has been there for 12 years. The regional manager has 13 years of experience with Wesley Living.
The employees are all SAHMA Excellence Program members and the property manager was the 2023 SAHMA Manager of the Year. The manager is an active volunteer with SAHMA and has her CPO, FHC, and SHCM designations. At the same time, the service coordinator is a Tennessee State Health Insurance Assistance Program level III counselor and volunteer, the secretary for her American Association of Service Coordinators chapter, a Certified Dementia Practitioner, and holds her PSC designation.
The staff at St. Joseph is dedicated to the overall well-being of the residents. Residents never know what they might find happening in the community room at St. Joseph on any given day. There are too many activities to list, ranging from fitness classes and money management presentations to jewelry making, potlucks, holiday/seasonal tree decorating, painting classes, cookouts, line dancing, health fairs, holiday parties, free manicures, music bingo, dementia and Alzheimer’s support, free life planning legal services, spiritual offerings, breakfast club and much, much more. And, of course, the staff is always elbow-deep in the fun. It is unimaginable to some that the employees can say they get paid to “play” at times.
One of the community’s proudest offerings is a Wesley bus to take residents grocery shopping and to banks, pharmacies, post office, department stores and other offerings in Dyersburg and surrounding towns. However, the residents most enjoy the outings each week. One such outing was to Senior Day at the Memphis Zoo. Seeing the residents’ faces light up was great; many of them had never been to a zoo before. They were like children on Christmas morning, seeing the animals they had only ever seen on television or in books.
St. Joseph has partnered with Christ Classical Academy in Dyersburg and its Salt & Light Project, allowing the students of CCA an opportunity to serve. The project helps students develop an outward focus by seeing and meeting the needs of others. There are many other community agencies and programs St. Joseph partners with, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Red Cross, McIver’s Grant Public Library, the United Methodist Church and other spiritual entities, First Citizens National Bank, West Tennesee Legal Services, Feed The Need, Transitions of Dyer County, Matthew 25:40, Office on Aging, Senior Crimestoppers, the local UT [University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture] Extension Office and many more. Being heavily involved within the community brings activities and education to the residents that enrich their lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually while helping them retain their independence.
St. Joseph began to age and needed upgrading and modernization; Wesley Living set its sights on seeking funding to rehabilitate the property. The main goal for rehabilitation was to ensure the aging property would continue to be an asset to the senior population of Dyersburg and a safe, modern, and exciting place to call home. Planning and development took several years to engineer options for rehabbing the site. The site was refinanced and layered with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for the total rehabilitation project and development. The rehab work began in late 2017 and was completed in 2018.
Some of the significant innovative designs include green technology building attributes such as LED lighting, thermal insulated windows, sweepable floors made of fiberglass that are attractive and repairable with a lifetime warranty to reduce waste, low or no formaldehyde cabinets, centralized heating and air conditioning, no VOC [volatile organic compounds] paint, Energy Star-rated appliances, highly insulated roofs, and high-efficiency exterior doors. The apartments were modified to be adaptive, with restrictive walls and obstacles removed during renovations so that as the residents age, the apartments can adapt to their needs. Other adaptive items include cabinets that convert for under-counter wheelchair access when needed but provide additional cabinet space when not required, lowered upper cabinets and other accessible features.
St. Joseph is an Enterprise Green Community and was recognized nationally as an Enterprise Green Best Practice. With renovation and modernization, the facility’s upgrades decreased energy consumption by 40%, saving over $30,000 annually and reducing water consumption by over 20%.
The rehabilitation of the property was also about enhancing the lives of the seniors by building a new community room that could hold all the residents in one space and the staff offices. There used to be two small community rooms, and having an activity or function with all 90 residents in attendance couldn’t be accomplished. The new community room is spacious and outfitted with a generator, shower facility and storage for cots in case of a weather-related or catastrophic event in or around the area. One of the two previous community spaces was converted into a theater room with
state-of-the-art equipment, including a projection screen, DVD, surround sound and streaming capabilities. St. Joseph now has some Netflix aficionados. The other previous community room was made into a state-of-the-art fitness center with exercise machines designed specifically for seniors. With an emphasis on overall health—to reduce risk factors for dementia, cardiovascular disease, and fall prevention—the community offers physical fitness and health education classes. It has an exercise physiologist to assist the residents with fitness workouts, healthy eating habits, chair exercises and line dancing classes. Programs like these help to keep the residents happy, prevent social isolation and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Another exceptional attribute of St. Joseph Village is its dedication to housing people experiencing homelessness. St. Joseph has housed 10 homeless persons in just the last two years.
When a homeless resident moves in, the unit is fully furnished with furniture by a partnership with Big Lots and other local companies, and the Golden Cross Senior Ministries provides 30 days of nonperishable foods and a move-in kit that contains everything a homeless person would need for daily living. The kit has everything from a toothbrush and toilet paper to dishes, linens, cleaning supplies, soap, pots/pans, and decorative items. The resident also receives a gift card to buy perishable foods at the grocery store.
Some of the people formerly experiencing homelessness at St. Joseph found themselves in need because of mental illness. The dedicated and educated staff helps residents obtain the services needed to treat their disorders and lead fulfilling lives. Wesley Living’s interdisciplinary team of service coordinators includes mental health professionals, nurses, and social workers who work together for every resident. The nurse can work with hospitals, doctors, and other health care organizations, as well as be an advocate for the resident while dealing with these entities. When dealing with government entities like Social Security, though, the on-staff service coordinator can assist residents in navigating the extraordinarily complex systems. This interdisciplinary team brings a level of support uncommon in most affordable facilities nationwide, and this team is critical in meeting the needs of not just people experiencing homelessness but all the residents of St. Joseph.
Being a resident or staff member at St. Joseph Village means you are family. The feeling of family makes St. Joseph “home” for our residents. The residents and staff celebrate milestones, grieve losses, empower and support one another in a way that is hard to describe. It is a feeling. A comfort. A way of life.