Newer Housing Options for Older Adults

Linda Giltz, AICPSenior Planner, Land-of-Sky Regional Councillinda@landofsky.org – 828-251-6622

Newer Housing Options for Older Adults

• Cohousing Communities– Elder Cohousing

• Shared Home (akin to “Golden Girls”)• Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

(NORC)• The Green House Project

New Paradigm for Elder Living

• Human-scaled• Relationship-based• Resident managed/centered, with an overlay of

lifelong learning, later-life spirituality, and• “Giving back" to your own and the greater

community.

A sense of "community" is an essential ingredient in quality of life and significantly improves health status.1

From Alex Mawhinney’s article “Intentional Elder Neighborhoods” – on www.secondjourney.org

1 See "The Roseto Effect" at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1695733/.

Changing Culture – desire for community

“Community is a dynamic whole that emerges when a group of people participate in common practices; depend upon one another; make decisions together; identify themselves as part of something larger than the sum of their individual relationships; and commit themselves for the long term to their own, one another’s, and, the group’s well being.”from Creating Community Anywhere, Carolyn Shaffer & Kristin Anundsen

Cohousing• What is cohousing?– condominium/townhouse community – people live

in their own homes and share common elements:• Gardens and grounds• Common House (a.k.a. community building)• “stuff”

Westwood Cohousing – Asheville, NC

Cohousing• What is cohousing?– Community focus – in design,

sharing meals and common areas, in governance

All photos – Westwood Cohousing

Cohousing

• What is cohousing?– Efficiencies – Shared vision/intention and work and tools

Six Defining Characteristics of Cohousing

(http://www.cohousing.org/six_characteristics)

•Participatory Process•Neighborhood Design•Common Facilities•Resident Management•Non-hierarchical structureand decision-making•No shared community economy

Pacifica (Carrboro) – upper rightEno Commons (Durham) – lower right

Cohousing Communities in NCfrom www.cohousing.org

North Carolina

Community City/Town Units Acres Status

Arcadia Cohousing Chapel Hill 33 17 Completed 1999

Blue Heron Farm Pittsboro 15 64 Building

Deep River CoHousing at Living Well Community

Franklinville Forming

Durham Central Park Cohousing Community

Durham 25 1 Own Site

Elderberry Rougemont Forming

Eno Commons Durham 22 11 Completed 2000

Pacifica Carrboro 46 8 Completed 2006

Solterra Durham 38 20 Completed 2003

the Villages at Crest Mountain Asheville 11 36 Building

Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood

Black Mountain 5 Building

Westwood Cohousing Asheville 24 4 Completed 1998

Senior / Elder Cohousing

• Older Adult cohousing communities• Independent living

Silver Sage Village, Boulder, Colorado

ElderSpirit Cohousing, Abingdon, VA

The Elder Cohousing Network - www.abrahampaiss.com/ElderCohousing/

Senior Cohousing

“What boomers left undone in their youth, they will return to take up in their maturity, if for no other reason than because they will want to make old age interesting.”

From Theodore Roszak’s new book, The Making of an Elder Culture

Elder Cohousing – ElderSpirit

• All residents age 55 or older; set up to age in place• 16 affordable (subsidized) apartments plus 13 market-rate

homes

Elder Cohousing – ElderSpirit

• “People don’t feel old here” –residents have a lot in common and enjoy and relate to each other• Very connected to larger Abingdon

community

Art Room (left)

Common House Kitchen (right)

Path to Virginia Creeper Trail (bottom)

Senior Cohousing - examples

Wolf Creek Lodge – a cohousing community for active adults (Grass Valley, CA).

www.wolfcreeklodge.org

This 30-household, three story Lodge will be built on spacious, wooded land that slopes down to flowing Wolf Creek.

Senior Cohousing - examplesSilver Sage Village – 16 housing units clustered around a common courtyard, and an accessible 2-story, 5,000 sq. ft. Common House with a large outdoor deck and expansive views of the Rocky Mountains. (Boulder, CO)

www.silversagevillage.com

Shared Home Model

• Group of older adults living together in a house (remember Golden Girls?)

• Each has own room• (Often) Shared kitchen, dining, living areas

Women for Living in Community (Asheville) – www.womenlivingincommunity.com

“Community living based on the guidance of feminine desires for relatedness, commitment, laughter and sharing.”

Shared Home - example in WNCLotus Lodge•Cohousing-like – a common vision unites the community•4400 sq. ft., two-story, built in 1915•Converted into 3 apartments – total of 9 bedrooms, 3 kitchens, 4 baths and a few common rooms•10 long-term residents•2.5 acres of land, organic gardens, semi-rural area 15 minutes from downtown Asheville•Also serves as a vacation or retreat rental

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

• Typical communities where a lot of residents have lived for a long time and aged in place– AARP estimates about 5,000 exist

across the US

• The Village Model – pioneered by Beacon Hill Village of Boston– Nonprofit reviews and organizes

programs and services

Green House ConceptAn innovative model for residential long-term care that involves a total rethinking of the philosophy of care, architecture, and organizational structure normally associated with long-term care.

Vision of Dr. William Thomas, a Harvard-educated geriatrician

The Green House Project, funded by RWJF and technical assistance fees, provides technical assistance and pre-development loans to organizations that want to establish Green House homes.

Green House Concept• An independent, self-contained home for six to 12 people,

designed to look like a private home or apartment • Typically licensed as a skilled nursing facility• Each person has a private bedroom and bathroom• Bedrooms open onto a common living, kitchen and dining

area