STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Esta Hornstein loves the view of Della Mountain from her second-floor balcony at the new Blaine Manor Apartments.

And she loves the spaciousness of her new apartment, which gives her plenty of room to hang her Native American portrait collection in between several beautiful antique cabinets.

But most of all, she loves the new community she’s found since moving into the new facility just around the corner from the Hailey Skate Park.

“It’s a community and we get together,” she said. “Every morning I have coffee at Vicki’s and every evening, wine at Nancy’s. And, all of a sudden, we look at the clock and it’s 10 ‘o clock and we say, ‘How’d that happen?’ It’s a gift that we have this.”

Hornstein, who served up Matzah Ball Soup and other Jewish comfort foods at her restaurants in Ketchum for years, is among the first tenants of the new Blaine Manor Senior Apartments.

Those apartments are full with a waiting list. But there is still room at the new Blaine Manor Family Apartments, where workers are currently applying the finishing touches.

And there will be an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, for the community and prospective tenants to check out the new facility.

The Family Apartments consist of two- and three-bedroom units. Rent for the apartments cost between $815 and $1,045 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1,142 and $1,195 for a three-bedroom apartment.

To qualify, one person must not make more than $31,500. The limit is $36,000 for a two-person household, $40,500 for a three-person household and $45,000 for a four-person household.

“They’re new high-quality, affordable apartments,” said Michelle Griffith, executive director of ARCH Community Housing Trust.

The apartments sit on the site of a hospital that opened up in 1960. A display of newspaper clippings from 1960 tells how Blaine Manor was designed to be “first class in all ways, yet within the financial limitations.” “It adds beauty to South Main Street,” said one clipping.

The hospital transitioned into an assistive care facility before being torn down to make room for affordable housing. Blaine County charges $1 for the land lease and ARCH Community Housing Trust facilitated affordable housing financing deployed by The House Company.

Both the Senior and Family apartments finished the major part of construction close to their projected finish dates despite a labor shortage and supply shortage of lumber,  drywall and other materials. Even so, Griffith can point to places where they’re still awaiting the permanent doors, and the computers for the Senior Apartments are on backorder.

Walkup stairs and a lack of halls and common areas in the Family Apartments afford privacy for families.

But residents of the 30 units in the Senior Apartments happily decorate the outside of their doors so friends can easily find them in the common hallways. They gathered in the apartment’s congregational “Living Room” for a Super Bowl Party and St. Paddy’s Day Party. They avail themselves of dumbbells and stationary bicycles in the exercise room that sports the photos of local Olympians for inspiration and a flat screen TV that residents can watch while exercising. And they meet together for weekly Tai Chi classes.

The Senior Apartments offer a storage room for bicycles and skis, a computer room and a library. There’s a game room and a common area for Tai Chi classes.

“Many of the residents are just happy to have a place of their own,” said Griffith. “Some were living in campers or with relatives or in places without running water because they couldn’t find anything else that fit their budget.

The units block out the traffic noise from Main Street, but Hornstein loves going to the window and watching the traffic below.

“We can’t wait to sit outside on the balcony on summer nights and watch the sunsets,” she said. “We’re already making plans to watch the Fourth of July parade from this side and we’re going to friends on the other side to watch the fireworks.”

Hornstein had a small apartment before moving into Blaine Manor but it wasn’t a place she could have afforded long term.

“I know a lot of people wish they were here,” she said. “I feel bad for them—they just didn’t get on the list fast enough.”