By Rachel McGrath, VC Star The housing needs of Ventura County’s older population and ways to meet those needs were the subjects of a conference Thursday in Camarillo. Ventura County elected officials, local government staff members and representatives of private sector businesses attended the event hosted by the nonprofit Housing Opportunities Made Easier. “The need for senior housing and a variety of kinds of senior housing is coming upon us so quickly, and we are just not prepared,” said Linda Fisher-Helton from the Area Housing Authority, who also serves on the board of Housing Opportunities Made Easier. “The cities are not at a place where they can really do a lot of building of new housing so we’re looking at where are these people going to live.” Andrea Gallagher, president of the Thousand Oaks-based nonprofit Senior Concerns, said a “crisis moment” such as a fall, a chronic health condition or the onset of dementia is increasingly what motivates people to think about where they will spend their older years. “Seniors and their families are waiting longer and longer to make that call,” she said. The depressed real estate market also has affected the financial ability of seniors to move into independent and assisted-living facilities, Gallagher said, and the wait list is long for public housing for seniors. Susan White Wood from the County of Ventura Area Agency on Aging said Ventura County is not affordable for 47 percent of older adults. Wood said the Elder Index that is used to calculate how much income seniors need to meet their basic needs shows that in Ventura County, a single senior needs about $24,000 a year for basic needs such as housing, transportation, food and fuel. “The annual average Social Security payment is $12,100, so the discrepancy there is huge,” she said. “Our agency has seen a huge increase in demand for affordable housing and transportation,” she added. “The 80-plus population, the oldest of the old, is the largest-growing demographic. We’re faced with a kind of onslaught of demand outpacing our resources.” Private-sector representatives discussed options for those with higher incomes and the ability to sell a home. Leisure Care is developing a 126-unit senior housing complex with a park and community pavilion on the former Los Robles Hospital site in Westlake Village. Ken Robertson, a project manager, said Leisure Care focuses on providing retirement communities for 15 percent of the market: seniors seeking an active lifestyle and independent living with the means to pay for them. “The senior-housing industry is pretty big industry. It’s about 2.7 million units of housing right now on the market, and it’s growing,” he said. “The capitalized market is about 230 to 260 billion dollars, so there’s a lot of money out there that’s going into creating market-rate senior housing.” University Village Thousand Oaks offers “a luxury model” providing independent and assisted-living options, as well as memory care, Executive Director Ryan Exline said. The retirement community next to California Lutheran University requires an entry fee of $300,000 to $1 million, and a monthly fee of $3,000 to $5,000, Exline said. “We really fit the need for seniors who are looking for one place to go to live the rest of their lives, and providing multiple care avenues for them,” Exline said. Other options raised at the conference included home retrofits, such as installing grab bars and adapting bathrooms for those in wheelchairs, and homes that offer 24-hour care to a small number of seniors living in an adapted single-family home. Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/may/24/senior-housing-needs-growing-in-county-officials/#ixzz1wI4aM96m – vcstar.com More …
