Finding a Home at AHEPA 489 Apartments

On the day Sally Massaro was supposed to move into , her second-youngest child died.

Florence Massaro, 40, suffered a coronary in her home in Hudson in January and was taken to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.

On Jan. 31, the day before Sally’s lease began, doctors told Sally her daughter was brain dead.

The next day, Florence was pronounced medically dead. Her organs were donated. Her body was cremated.

Florence never got to set foot in Sally’s apartment, one of 50 in the federally subsidized housing complex for low-income seniors, after Sally moved in. But a photo of her graces a bookshelf near the flat-screen TV in Sally's living room.

This is the story of one woman who found a home but lost a daughter.

Sally lived with Florence, a teacher in the Pasco County School District, in Pasco County for six years. Sally’s husband died in Pennsylvania. Before his death, Florence, the second-youngest of seven children and unmarried, promised him Sally could live with her.

The two lived together in a two-bedroom home on Como Drive in Trinity. Soon, it came time to move. Florence wanted to get a place of her own.

“She and I decided it was just uncomfortable,” said Sally, who is now 68.

Sally applied for a unit at AHEPA 489 last year. She was told she was 89th on a waiting list, she said.

She looked at other apartment complexes and condominiums. She considered moving back north or to Orlando. Some complexes were too expensive. Some were unsafe. The cheapest one Sally felt comfortable moving into cost $800 a month in rent.

She despaired. Florence told her not to give up.

“She told me, ‘No, Mom, you will get this,' ” Sally said.

January came. Roughly 10 months or more had passed since Sally had applied to AHEPA 489. Florence had moved to Hudson the month before. Sally stayed behind in the home on Como Drive.

Then she got word of a vacancy at AHEPA 489. She made arrangements to move. Florence, a teacher at Fivay High School, died as she was making lunch in her kitchen.

Sally remembers how Florence offered her encouragement when she despaired. And she's grateful for it.

"I always say this (apartment) is her gift to me," she said. 

There are more than 60 people on the waiting list for AHEPA Apartments, according to an estimate by property manger Genoveva Algarin. There’s an effort under way to add new units on the property. The local chapter of  American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association is applying for. 

The current apartments are not perfect, Sally said. There's no sound insulation. If Sally is watching TV, her neighbors are hearing it. The new apartments should have screened patios and the new model of toilets for people with disabilities.    

Sally said her home is a "coccoon." It's cozy and safe.

"I couldn't be more grateful," she said. "This is a wonderful place to live."