CUMBERLAND COUNTY, N.C. — Affordable senior housing in Cumberland County is in big demand.

Eighty-six-year-old Pauline Nicholson loves her new apartment. She said it is a big improvement over her last one.

"They took my whole social security check over there for one room," she said.

She said that she now has a lot of room for $294 a month. Nicholson is one the first tenants at the brand-new Haymount Manor Apartments right off Bragg Boulevard. It has 48 units to help Cumberland County's growing demand for low-income senior housing.

"The problem here as in many areas is people simply can't afford the higher rents. They have to live in substandard housing or with family, so this demand will continue," developer Murray Duggins Sr. said.

The latest study shows that more than 3,000 new low-income rental units are needed in Cumberland County by 2005. While families would live in many of them, seniors also need inexpensive apartments.

With such a demand, Nicholson feels lucky to have her new apartment. She said finding something she could afford was not easy.

"I didn't have enough money to pay all the rent. This is the nicest place I've ever lived in my whole life," she said.

The developer says Haymount Manor was made possible by the city, county, and state, which offered tax credits. He has submitted an application to build another affordable senior housing unit in Hope Mills.