Chris' Corner - Coming Full Circle: The Future of Retirement Housing, Part Two

Chris’ Corner is sponsored by Chateau Retirement Communities

Welcome to Chris’ Corner! Chris Serold is delighted to once again contribute to Northwest Prime Time. Chris draws on a 25-year career in the senior housing industry to offer insight and perspective on topics of interest to today’s retirees. She looks forward to sharing her expertise with Northwest Prime Time readers, and welcomes suggestions, questions and feedback. Chris invites you to e-mail her at chris.serold@chateaullc.com

In my last article, I mentioned it was the first article in a two-part series. I introduced the idea that retirement housing like everything else isn’t stagnant but continually changes. Regardless our age, we are social beings and we gravitate to community. Community means different things to different people but at the very least, it means we are not alone.

Everyone experiences the world differently and their experience drives how they want to live their lives, including in retirement, of which housing is a major part of the consideration. For people to consider retirement housing, retaining community in our neighborhoods as we have experienced it all our lives, is a very strong priority. The neighborhood community of the future could be a single family home, a deliberate multigenerational apartment building with a daycare center, or a housing complex of cottages and duplexes built around shared outdoor and indoor common areas.

I have a friend who recently went to live with her daughter in Houston. Her daughter purchased a large home for she, her husband and their two children, her mother (my friend), and her husband’s mother. While my friend never imagined she would be living in such an arrangement, she speaks very highly of her new home. The two grandmothers have become good friends and feel secure knowing they have the support of their children and a relationship with their grandchildren they may not otherwise have had. Everyone has their own space, giving them the option of privacy, or socializing with family members in the common areas. She speaks with pride about the living arrangement her daughter and son-in-law created, a 2014 version of the old three generations under one roof of years ago that I wrote about in my last column.

There are retirement communities today that house daycare centers, however, deliberate multigenerational apartment buildings with a daycare may be a thing of the future. The mix of adults, for example, might be seniors, working-age adults, families and students all seeking, for various reasons, support such as meals, housekeeping, maintenance, and fitness with a large emphasis on wellness. Residents would enrich each other’s lives and lighten one another’s burdens through shared meals, by sharing their talents and interests and offering friendship. This option may be just the answer to seniors who do not have family in the area or are alone. The daycare would provide a destination for seniors during the day where they could read books or participate in a shared project. In the common areas, foreign students would find great opportunities to practice speaking English and working adults, whose work schedules allow little time for domestic chores, would be home free.

Or the neighborhood community may be a housing complex of cottages and duplexes built around shared indoor and outdoor common areas. This model would appeal to singles, couples, or families of any age. Households would be responsible for their own home as well as upkeep of common areas, they would come together for meals on a regular basis, and help one another. Opportunities would be available to share IT (high tech) instruction, give lectures, share music, tutor or provide some babysitting services. As their lives intersect, individuals would discover a sense of purpose in their shared gifts and talents, and become friends.

The next generation is going to be more diverse, more tech-savvy, care more about sustainability development and be more active because this has been their world. They are going to look for more options and more control. They are going to seek flexibility, fluidity, and freedom. And they are looking for a neighborhood community.

If you would like to find out why Chateau Retirement Communities are committed to retirement housing, please call us at (425) 488-2400. Also, visit our website at www. ChateauRetirement.com