Over the last several years I have been a frequent visitor to assisted living communities. It has been my privilege to give talks to residents on various subjects including aging, spirituality, and current events. Getting to know at least some of the women and men living there has been an experience that I much value.
The assisted living option has become open to many more people than formerly. And those who have taken up residence in this kind of place usually find it an excellent choice. Being in a place that assures personal safety and services such as meals, housecleaning, cultural and recreational activities pleases most of those who have chosen to enter.
The rub, however, is that many older people cannot afford assisted living. If they do not own their own home or lack a substantial retirement income, most cannot hope to pay the entrance fees and management fees that make entrance possible. If they had the opportunity, presumably many more would choose the benefits of assisted living rather than continue to live on their own.
That’s why it comes as good news indeed to discover that some leaders in the field of housing for older people have been at work devising ways to make assisted living available to those whose incomes and assets fall below the usual threshold for admittance.
Such a leader is Daniel Wuenschel, the veteran executive director of the public housing authority in my home community, Cambridge. In a recent interview he shared with me some of the recent initiatives he and his agency have taken to make assisted living affordable for people formerly excluded for lack of financial resources. I share this information with readers outside my home community because, with Wuenschel, I believe that housing leaders and many citizens in other cities and towns will be interested in hearing about these new programs.
The first initiative that our local housing authority has begun is to convert 25 apartments in one of its public housing developments into assisted living units. Only one other community in Massachusetts – New Bedford – has received federal funds to do the same, along with three others nationwide
“We are ahead of the curve on this one,” says Dan Wuenschel, “and really want to test and see if assisted living and independent living can coexist within the same building.” His agency has funded this 20 million dollar scheme by putting together funds from a variety of sources, with five million coming from a Housing and Urban Development grant.
Surprisingly, the demand for public housing for elders remains at a low ebb right now, Wuenschel reports. But it is expected to soar some ten years from now when more of the baby boomer population arrives at age 60. He sees this period as “a window of opportunity,” a time for program changes in public housing. Hence the assisted living pilot project.
The second major initiative taken by our local housing authority is the opening of a new assisted living facility on the site of a former nursing home started by our city in 1928. Recently, it had been losing two and a half million dollars a year and needed physical changes. The housing authority took the lead, formed a team, put together financing, and dedicated the new house three weeks ago.
It was not easy to do. “Neville Manor has taken us about as long as it took the allies to win World War II,” Wuenschel says lightheartedly. And the complete project, now called Neville Place, will not be finished until at least 2,003. That is when a new nursing home will have been added to this campus alongside of Fresh Pond.
The assisted living facility offers an experiment in mixed-income residency. Elders who are poor, even very poor, will be able to afford one of 39 units by means of subsidies from Medicaid and the housing assistance program known as Section 8. People of moderate income will have access to 18 other units, while 20 percent will be reserved for people of higher means. Neville Place also offers a special care program for 15 people with memory loss and early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
People from our community will receive preference for assisted living units here. But Wuenschel remains hopeful that, in time, such housing opportunities will be opened elsewhere. An association of public housing authority directors is now trying to interest Congress in making funds available for publicly supported assisted living initiatives in their communities.
To their credit, a little more than half of the 170 assisted living residences in Massachusetts keep at least ten percent of their units available for people of low income. Medicaid makes it possible for some applicants to enter such residences but relatively few. The opening of Neville Place, along with the option of assisted living in one public housing facility, gives hope to those of us who want more abundant housing choices for all older people, no matter their income.
Richard Griffin