Creative Housing Ideas for an Aging Population

November 26, 2006
National Perspectives
Creative Housing Ideas for an Aging Population
By ELIZABETH ABBOTT
New York Times

PAWTUCKET, R.I. BEFORE moving into her new apartment at a housing development for elderly Asian-Americans here, Wai-Chun Chiu lived alone in an apartment building where everyone spoke English and no one spoke Chinese.

Mrs. Chiu, 88, said she felt lonely there, even though it, too, was senior housing. Her limited English made it hard for her to make friends.

But the Chinese Christian Church of Rhode Island saw the isolation of Mrs. Chiu and others like her in the congregation.

An evangelical congregation based in Pawtucket, the church raised $1.8 million two years ago to buy and convert a small jewelry factory into 17 one-bedroom units.

The 12,000-square-foot two-story building, which became available to tenants in January, is next to the congregation's new church, which was also once a factory. Residents can walk to services and other activities and to a small library in the church's basement that is well stocked with Chinese movies.

"Before this housing, they were all isolated," said Jane Song, a church volunteer, who runs a weekly tai chi class for residents.

The church's project is just one of dozens of Rhode Island developments designed to address the needs of the state's aging population. According to the 2000 census, Rhode Island ranks sixth in the nation for the proportion of residents over age 65. For people over 75, the fastest-growing segment of the state's population, it ranks fifth.

"Certainly, there is a growing need to provide more senior housing, especially in urban areas," said Susan Boddington, deputy director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, the state's affordable-housing agency.

There are currently 204 federally subsidized senior housing developments in Rhode Island with a total of nearly 20,000 apartments. Additionally, many local housing authorities offer some subsidized senior housing.

But many of those units are taken by disabled adults, who are not necessarily elderly, Ms. Boddington and others said. A recent report by Rhode Island Housing found that the number of subsidized elderly housing units in each of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns does not always meet each community's need.

"Some communities can house elderly households in assisted housing almost immediately, while some have long waiting lists," the report found.

Corinne Calise Russo, director of the state's Department of Elderly Affairs, said the shortage means that some elderly people may have to move from the community they are accustomed to, away from family and friends.

"We clearly know what the problem is," Ms. Russo said. "The problem in Rhode Island is we don't have the options older people would like to see."

These options include financing programs that enable homeowners to repair or rehabilitate their properties so they can continue to live in them as they age, Ms. Russo said. They also include more age-restricted developments; older residents are often surprised to learn that there are sometimes nonelderly in senior housing, she and others said.

Another issue is cost. Ms. Russo and others said there is a need for programs that help low- and moderate-income elderly people afford assisted-living facilities. Rhode Island Housing began a program five years ago that provides 200 Medicaid waivers to help offset the cost of low-income residents in assisted-living facilities, but there are 200 more on a waiting list for the waivers.

Of course, not all of Rhode Island's growing elderly population have low to moderate incomes. Because of a surge in the state's housing prices over the last 20 years, many older Rhode Islanders are better off financially than their parents were at their age, census data show.

They are also healthier and more active.

"We have a very different elderly population now than we had in the '60s," Ms. Russo said.

At Harbor House in Newport, some of the tenants still go out to work every day even though they are at least 62, said John M. Byrne, senior property manager. Then there are retirees like Herb Reid, an 85-year-old career Navy man, who spends many mornings sipping coffee in a spacious dining room overlooking Narragansett Bay.

Mr. Reid said he had come to know all the tenants in the four years that he had been living at Harbor House. "It's like a big family," he said.

An independent living complex with 38 apartments, Harbor House was created by combining five historic properties in the city's Point section, including a former convent, a chapel with stained glass windows built in 1914 and a house built in 1840 that was once part of the Auchincloss estate. Ade Bethune, a liturgical artist, conceived of the development and formed a nonprofit organization to make it happen.

"It's not good for old people to be alone," Ms. Bethune once said. (She has since died.)

Harbor House opened in 2002 after nearly $5.8 million in renovation and reconstruction. Rents are based on the income level of tenants, with 31 units reserved for those with incomes below $30,840 a year.

"It's a gracious place to live," said Rita Brissette, who oversees a lunch program at Harbor House.

Across the bay from Harbor House, the De La Salle Christian Brothers are researching the possibility of building affordable elderly housing and market-rate town houses and condominiums on 105 acres surrounding their residence in Narragansett.

The Christian Brothers' campus is on Ocean Road, considered the nicest street in town; homes in the area sell for well over $1 million. While wetlands on the site will undoubtedly limit what can be built, Christian Brothers is continuing to look into the idea of senior housing, which appears at this point to be viable, said Brother Edmond Precourt, head of the order's New England/Long Island province.

More than 70 assisted-living facilities have been built in Rhode Island in the last two decades. But the state is also starting to see the sort of "active older adults communities" aimed at those over 50.

One such project is planned for Westerly, a community that borders Connecticut at the southern end of Rhode Island.

Called Champlin Woods at Winnapaug Pond, the $56.5 million development calls for 60 independent-living homes and an assisted-living facility with 178 units to be built on 38.7 acres with views of the Atlantic Ocean and Winnapaug Pond. The developer, the Newbury Development Company, teamed up with the Westerly Land Trust to preserve 134.5 acres surrounding the development.

The average price of a two-bedroom "cottage" is expected to be $375,000. Buyers will be required to be over 55.

According to Thomas J. Liguori Jr., a Westerly lawyer, who is working with Newbury on the project, the Westerly area is seeing an influx of over-50 buyers. They include retired Rhode Islanders coming back from Florida to be closer to their grandchildren and out-of state buyers looking for weekend and vacation homes.

"The over-50 buyer wants a design that doesn't scream out that they're old," Mr. Liguori said.

They also want some "affordable elegance," said Mr. Liguori, defining that as architectural features they couldn't afford when they were younger and raising a family.

In addition to "active adult communities," there is likely to be more so-called affinity housing, in which residents share an interest or background. The Chinese-Christian Church project falls into this category.

At the project in Pawtucket, rents are $385 a month, utilities included. Each apartment comes with a flat-screen television and satellite access to Chinese television programs.

Booklan Ang and her husband, Ben, recently moved into the apartment building. They had been living with one of their children in a Rhode Island suburb far from the church. This is better, Mrs. Ang said, because she does not have to depend on anyone to get to church and she can go anytime. "It's very convenient," she said.

Louis C. Yip, a church deacon and restaurateur, who started the project with Sunny Ng, his partner in Tai-O Inc., a real estate development firm, said they are losing money on the venture. Each month, the church has to pitch in to help pay the building's expenses, Mr. Yip said.

But the congregation of the Chinese Christian Church, which has several hundred members, has been very supportive, Mr. Yip said. Noting that the church hopes eventually to create a senior center nearby, where the elders can have hot meals daily, Mr. Yip said, "We want to do a lot more."