Shared Meals, and Lives
Read this great story about senior cohousing in The New York Times: The New Old Age Column, published on Aug. 22.
Faced with the usual options for senior housing and elder care, some older adults are inventing their own grassroots versions — do-it-yourself senior living that’s friendlier, more autonomous and less expensive. Fellows in the News21 program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are posting video reports on four of these: a shared housing arrangement in White Plains, a senior cohousing development in Virginia, an urban village in Chicago and an R.V. community in East Texas.
When Carol Edwards, 86, returned home after rotator cuff surgery, her right arm in a sling, she could not bathe, make her bed or fix a meal. She lived alone with no family close by. Still, the thought of a six-week recuperation did not faze her.
She lives in ElderSpirit, a cohousing community in the Appalachian town of Abingdon, Va.
An 89-year-old neighbor helped tackle Ms. Edwards’s morning chores. Another resident shuttled her to doctors’ appointments. Several brought over home-cooked meals.
“My every need was taken care of,” said Ms. Edwards, who has lived in ElderSpirit since its inception five years ago. “That’s the kind of care you can’t get from places that are professionally run.”
Continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities hold no appeal for residents of ElderSpirit, an eclectic group of 44 older people, including a retired teacher, nurse, artist, minister, corporate executive and several nonprofit administrators, who moved here from 15 states across the country. While anyone over age 55 can join the community, most residents are in their 70s.
They see senior cohousing as a low-cost alternative that allows them to remain independent while living in a community where neighbors know one another, share weekly meals and help in times of need.
“I didn’t want to be lonely and useless and helpless in my old age,” said the founder, Geraldine Peterson, 82. “This takes care of all those issues.”
And, she added, with mutual support and perhaps hired help, people can die at home: “I expect to.”
Built on 3.7 acres, ElderSpirit is a cluster of 29 gray and white residences flanked by a Spirit Center, where members congregate for meditation and prayer, and a two-story Common House, where they eat a group lunch on Tuesdays and make consensus decisions at monthly meetings.
Since residents live within shouting distance of one another, in what is sometimes called an intentional community, they have come to share their lives in many ways. One group swims in nearby Holston Lake once a week; another has a Friday night Netflix ritual. The community establishes “clearing house” sessions to resolve disputes, and nominates “care coordinators” to check on residents’ health.
“It makes growing older easier when you’re with people who are also growing older,” said Nancy Hunter, 74, a former social worker from Alaska.
Most residents have enjoyed stable health, said Dr. Anne Glass, a gerontologist at the University of Georgia who has followed the community since its opening. One reason may be that community members are not isolated and lead active lives, shown to enhance senior health, she said.
With only two part-time staffers, residents manage and maintain the community themselves. Through committees, they clean the common areas, organize exercise programs, draft policies, admit new members and control the ever-so-tight budget.
ElderSpirit is a mixed-income development, so more than half the units are state-subsidized rentals for low-income seniors, who pay $325 to $463 a month. The other units, one- and two-bedroom condos, initially sold for $100,000 to $130,000. (They now sell for $160,000.) Owners also pay a monthly maintenance fee of $150. If they sell their homes, they contribute half the profits to the community.
Although there are 250 multi-generational cohousing communities in the United States, there are just three other senior cohousing projects — in California, Colorado and New Mexico — despite enthusiastic testimonials from residents. One reason is the protracted process of building one. ElderSpirit was the product of 10 years’ planning and cost $3.8 million, raised by a team of dogged seniors through a patchwork of public grants and private donations and loans.
The recession and crash in the housing market also have hobbled the movement, said Kathryn McCamant, an architect and developer in the Bay Area who coined the term cohousing. A 30-unit project in Grass Valley, Calif., for instance, was poised for construction in 2009, but then the group lost its financing, and some buyers pulled out when they feared they could not sell their homes. After a two-year hiatus, the group, with down payments from 23 buyers, has acquired construction loans and is set to open next summer.
Senior cohousing communities also confront the question of whether the model will hold as the health of residents deteriorates. In the last two years, residents of ElderSpirit have weathered several medical emergencies, including a heart attack and a broken pelvis, plus three joint replacement surgeries.
Susan Apthorp, 76, supported by her neighbors after a fall two years ago, acknowledged that if a resident developed dementia and needed round-the-clock care, he might be forced to move into an institution.
Still, she said, “We’ll definitely live in our homes longer than most people do.”
Niharika Mandhana is a News21 fellow at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. News21 fellow Farhod Family contributed reporting.
