Two months after the Julia Morgan House ?” the university’s historic residence ?” shut its doors to a Sacramento State fitness program for the local elderly population, the group has found temporary homes at two Sacramento City facilities.

The program, known as the Life Center and ran by the College of Health and Human Services, paid $1 per year or 8.3 cents per month to rent its facilities in the Julia Morgan House, and was forced to leave when it couldn’t afford an increase in rent to $1,500 a month.

University Enterprises Inc. instituted the rent increase to cover the cost of the facility, said Marilyn Hopkins, dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

As a result, the Life Center, which has always been self-supporting, left to seek affordable accommodations, Hopkins said. She said after three consecutive years of university budget cuts, it was important that any program costs rest on program participants and not on students.

Even though some Life Center participants remain angry about the relocation, Hopkins said she thinks Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez was just trying to manage university resources wisely.

“There’s no secrets about it,” Hopkins said. “We’re all trying to do something good for the community and good for the students.”

Hopkins said the move is a positive change because it will allow the Life Center to serve multiple areas and enter into a possible partnership with the City of Sacramento Department of Parks and Recreation.

However, because the makeshift facilities lack permanent room for heavy equipment including stationary bicycles and treadmills, such items are being stored, and classes that use the particular machines are temporarily cancelled. Because of this, three of nine Life Center classes were discontinued.

But since the Life Center’s main goal is to serve the more frail elderly with classes that emphasize balance and stretching, the storage setbacks are surmountable, Hopkins said.

“Some people I’m sure we lost because we were unable to go to a different location,” Hopkins admitted. But she said the Life Center still has around 100 participants.

The new properties housing the Life Center ?” one a tiled red brick building near the Julia Morgan House, and the other a one-room activity building located in East Portal Park in East Sacramento ?” are free of rent because Sac State is sharing university facilities with the city in return.

The new places fit the Life Center’s needs, but the group is still searching for a permanent home, Hopkins said.

Lois Boulgarides, the Life Center faculty coordinator and lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology, said that the move posed a hurdle for the Life Center group that had been housed comfortably in the Julia Morgan House for five years ?” since its inception.

“It’s certainly different working in the city facilities, I think it’s been quite an adjustment for some of the members,” Boulgarides said.

Boulgarides said she was relieved to hear that most participants who left the program have kept up an exercise regimen.

“One of the things I think is very important ?” those who left have really continued with exercising,” Boulgarides said.

Boulgarides, who is serving her last semester as faculty coordinator, praised the Life Center for offering small classes of 10-12 and hiring instructors who are well certified.

She said often elderly people are lost and insecure in large gym environments because, unlike younger generations, they had not grown up working out at a gym.

Boulgarides said the Life Center has done a good job of accomplishing its original goals of providing services for healthy aging seniors, conducting research among participants, promoting student education and collaborating with city and state agencies.

Janice Freeman, a yoga class instructor for the Life Center and licensed message therapist, said she doesn’t think any of the Life Center participants are happy with the sudden change.

“I think we’re just trying to make the best of something,” Freeman said. “The city’s been wonderful, but we had a building and a place that worked for five years.”

Freeman said she wishes Sac State could have been more accommodating to the Life Center and feels the fitness classes still had tremendous potential at the Julia Morgan House when their stay was cut short.

But Freeman’s loyalty to her class and the Life Center didn’t falter with the change in scenery. “I love these people ?” they’re not only students, they’re friends,” Freeman said.

Boulgarides said she is eager to see what University Enterprises does with the Life Center’s old stomping ground at the Julia Morgan House ?” which was remodeled especially for the Life Center in 1999, just before they moved in.

Hopkins added that she is almost certain that no one has taken Life Center’s place at the Julia Morgan House.

The Julia Morgan House was given to Sac State in 1966 when former homeowners Charles Goethe and his wife, Mary Glide Goethe, willed the ’20s-era residence to the university. The will outlined that the house be used to enhance Sac State’s mission of teaching, learning and public service, and that all proceeds go the upkeep of the facility, according to the University Enterprises’ Web site.

Famous female architect Julia Morgan built the house in the early 20th century. As of press time, University Enterprises could not be reached for comment.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]