Senior Housing Blog

Posted by kmancer on November 27th, 2009

Welcome to the Lumina Services Senior Housing and Health Care Blog. Our hope for the blog is that it provides a forum for discussion about the very wide range of topics we are interested in.

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Studio Units in Senior Housing Projects

Posted by kmancer on March 8th, 2010

Much like the human appendix, studio units, or bachelor units if you prefer, are in evolutionary decline. People don’t like them. Many owners of buildings with unrentable studio units are knocking down walls and joining units together. Even studio units that are subsidized or that have very low rents may be hard to fill. We worked for a client once who was convinced that studio units were the way of the future because of their sustainability, by which he meant that 100 people would take up less land if they were living in 400 square foot units than if they were living in 600 square foot units. That is unquestionably true. There is a whole movement afoot now to convince people to reduce their demands on the planet by living in smaller houses. It is rare to go a month without reading some aging boomer’s lament about the 900 square foot one bathroom house she grew up in and why can’t people today do the same? I grew up in a house like that, maybe a little bigger but only one bathroom for two parents and four children. Today I live in a 3,700 square foot house and politically correct or not, I love it.

On a smaller scale, literally and figuratively, that is what is happening to studio units. I kept telling our studio-fixated client that he was dead wrong but he was stubborn and convinced his own instincts were right—he was a developer, did I mention that? But he wasn’t a stupid developer because he was willing to test his ideas with consumers. It was a complicated issue to explore but eventually we designed a questionnaire that looked like this:

“If sizes and rents were as follows (note this was a few years ago):

Studio, 400 square feet:                      $1,500

One bedroom, 550 square feet:           $1,900

Two bedroom: 750 square feet           $2,300

Which unit would you choose (please check one):

Studio             _____

One Bedroom             _____

Two Bedroom _____

If you checked One Bedroom, at what point would you choose a studio instead (please check one):

If the studio were $400 cheaper         _______

If the studio were $500 cheaper         _______

If the studio were $600 cheaper         _______

If the studio were $700 cheaper         ______

It wouldn’t matter, I would still want a one bedroom unit    ______

No matter what the rent differential was, the majority of survey respondents still preferred a one bedroom unit. This didn’t surprise me but it did surprise the developer. He did not proceed with his plans, although he has never thanked me for saving him millions of dollars.

The dislike of studios is not so much a matter of space per se. There are very large studios and very small one bedroom units and still people prefer units with bedrooms. It could be a gender issue, at least partly. Somewhere around 75 or 80% of the residents of supportive housing projects are women. It is said (by who I am not sure) that women of a certain age apparently don’t like to entertain visitors in their bedrooms, which is essentially what a studio apartment is, and furthermore they don’t like to run the risk of someone coming to visit them when their bed is unmade, which would be instantly obvious if they were living in a studio unit. The fact that very few people in seniors’ housing projects visit in each other’s units is immaterial to this debate. Men on the other hand are assumed to care not at all about visitors or unmade beds. If, magically, the existing gender ratio could be  reversed, studios might become wildly popular, especially as they are unquestionably cheaper. And while we are on the subject of beds, it is not that unusual to run across people with no beds as in people who sleep in their recliners. By all accounts it is very comfortable especially if it is difficult for people to lie down for some reason.

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Location of Senior Housing Projects

Posted by kmancer on March 6th, 2010

Location, location, location—does the golden rule of real estate also apply to senior housing projects? Conventional wisdom suggests that walking-distance proximity to stores and services is, if not essential, then at the very least extremely important. But without sitting down and doing the math, I would say that a minority of senior housing projects in BC are located close enough to stores and services so that people could easily walk to them. Some are in locations that are downright pastoral. Of course walking isn’t necessary for all people—some have scooters that enlarge their geographic boundaries. Scooters though are used by a distinct minority of seniors, meaning that walking distance is more important than scooter distance. The average senior housing project in our area (say 120 units) usually has scooter parking for around 10 scooters, a ratio that seems to work fine, at least so far.

And then there are the buses and the tuck shops and the meals. Many senior housing projects have their own buses to take people around to shopping and doctors’ appointments, many have small tuck shops that sell various items, and in any case, most meals are provided on site. So why do people need to walk anywhere? I firmly believe that the answer to that question is this: even if people don’t have to walk anywhere, the fact that they could if they wanted to is an important psychological benefit. And for those people who actually do walk to the store or the bank, it’s more than just a psychological benefit—it’s a physical benefit as well.

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First new post

Posted by kmancer on March 3rd, 2010

To our readers: I apologize for the lack of new posts over the past few weeks. From now on, we will post to the blog at least once or twice a week, perhaps more often. Next week I am going to Toronto to speak at the Third Canadian Seniors’ Housing Forum. I will be reporting on the conference as well as discussing two senior housing communities I am touring while there. Stay tuned!

http://www.insightinfo.com/index.php/ci_id/23125/la_id/1.htm

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Lumina Westbridge Newsletter

Posted by kmancer on December 17th, 2009

Some of you may have received an online survey about this. For those of you who didn’t, Lumina and Westbridge Group are contemplating the publication of a semi-annual newsletter on the seniors’ housing and health care industry. We want to know what people think about that idea. If you didn’t get a copy of the survey and would like to participate, please contact us.

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Stoves and countertop burners in retirement residences

Posted by kmancer on November 28th, 2009

Electric-Double-Stove-13493538447In my last (and first) post I mentioned stoves and countertop burners in retirement residences. By that term I mean places where people get their meals, housekeeping, laundry etc but are basically independent. They are mostly, to use a horrible term, “cognitively intact”. I think I am mostly cognitively intact too, but I digress.

Here is an excerpt on that topic (stoves I mean, not cognition) from one of the books I am writing.

“ In spite of the stove’s huge contribution to domestic simplicity, people, especially women, seem more than happy to jettison this monument to labor-saving technology the minute they have the opportunity to do so. Nine out of 10 people interviewed in a recent research project Lumina was involved in either don’t use their stove (if they have one) or don’t miss it (if they don’t). One woman told me she stores her Christmas decorations in her oven because she is short of cupboard space. Someone else theorized that not having a stove in units absolves women from guilt about not cooking. And yet there are those who feel strongly that the presence of a stove conveys a message about independence—“you may not want to cook and you certainly don’t have to, but if you did decide to bake a cake or roast a chicken you could go right ahead and do that.” I knew a seniors’ housing developer years ago in Saskatchewan who believed that providing any more than eight dinners a month was bad for people’s sense of independence.

While it is true that seniors fear loss of independence much more than they fear death, most do not seem to equate the absence of a stove with a loss of independence. Many women find it liberating. There are the safety concerns to consider as well. Stoves may create a fire hazard if used by people who are forgetful. Residents in buildings without stoves in the units often cite their absence as a comfort, although people living in buildings with stoves don’t seem to be overly worried that their neighbors’ cooking habits might create fire hazards. The community I visited whose residents were most concerned about fire hazards was, probably not coincidentally, the most restrictive about anything that generated heat—stoves, toaster ovens, candles.

And yet, I believe that fostering a sense of indepedence trumps guilt and fire worries. Fire hazards can be managed, and so can guilt with some good professional help. If I were building my own building, I would include either a stove or some burners. So what do YOU think?

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First Post

Posted by kmancer on November 28th, 2009

This is the first Lumina Services post written by me, Kate Mancer.  For some reason it feels very strange to sit here and write it. I have wanted a blog for years (well, ever since they were invented) because it seemed like an enchanting idea to wonder about something and then put it out there for comment or response. For example, how important are stoves or countertop burners in seniors’ retirement residences? That is a topic I am very interested in and have thought a great deal about. I have my own views, which I will post here soon, but I would certainly like to hear  other views too.  The list of topics I am interested in goes on and on and on.

So let the dialogue begin!

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