Nursing Home No More: The New Trend Is Aging With Your Friends:
This is about cohousing for seniors, which is an interesting alternative to seniors communities designed and run by large-scale developers and other mass-produced housing for retired people. Contrary to what the article says, cohousing is not a "new trend." It has been around in Europe and the US since the 1980s, but it has not caught on in this country. It involves common ownership, but the residents set it up themselves and make their own rules. The problem seems to be that it takes a lot of work and capital, and so far there haven't been many people willing or able to do it. It is much easier to respond to an ad about The Villages in Florida and walk into a turnkey, corporate-designed, large-scale seniors-only community with golf courses and swimming pools everywhere.
1 comment:
Continuing Care is another trend. https://www.aplaceformom.com/senior-care-resources/articles/continuing-care-retirement-communities
It’s expensive, so few can afford it. Plus the resident becomes beholden to the contract.
When you add the layers of Social Security and Medicare to the mix, these non-profit or for-profit organizations are using taxpayer funding from entitlement programs to house and provide health care for aging residents. Is that the best use of limited resources? I don’t think so.
I have often wondered why there aren’t more service-oriented co-ops that are not tied directly to housing. For example lawn and landscape co-ops, or weekly grocery buying and shopping co-ops that anyone can join, while staying in their own homes.
If local zoning — including HOAs — would allow for renovation or addition of apartments inside or in the back yard of existing homes, more people could take care of their parents longer. Too often, either zoning or CC&Rs won’t allow this to happen.
Of course, health care in America is another huge mess. No one seems to benefit except the health care industry. Even insurers are getting out of the health care business.
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