As it has grown more popular for older people to choose to age in place in their existing homes, this has become a challenge for the senior living industry. While dedicated senior living facilities can offer a sense of community and enticing amenities, the cost may often be out of reach for many potential customers, making the idea of remaining in the existing home more practical.
Senior living organizations must recognize these realities as aging in place grows more popular, according to Howard Braxton.
The recently-retired senior vice president of marketing, sales and communications for The Kendal Corporation — a system of not-for-profit communities for older residents — recently discussed this evolving dynamic during a virtual roundtable from Varsity, a group dedicated to marketing senior living facilities, according to a recent story at McKnights Senior Living.
In-home care and aging in place have long served as competitors with dedicated senior living facilities, he said, which puts the onus on the organizations managing those communities to emphasize the benefits of their amenities. One illustrative example he pointed out, according to the report, was the former and renewed prevalence of doctors making house calls for their patients.
But beyond that, differentiating the experience of a senior living community versus aging in place will be essential to moving forward, he added.
This dynamic “really hasn’t changed very much in my time in the industry,” he said, but is key to communicating “certain levels of care and community services, and even lifestyle, if you will, in our communities,” he said.
Like aging in place and potentially reverse mortgages, senior living organizations are on the beneficial side of the services that can grow through a more rapidly-aging population.
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal found that the market of dedicated senior housing could rapidly move from a place of oversupply to a shortage, especially since development on dedicated senior housing units and facilities ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic without significantly ramping up since then.
Experts who spoke with the Journal estimated that the market could move from a “glut to a shortage” sometime in the next five years, which could further bolster the position of aging in place. The report also acknowledged that choosing to stay at home is becoming easier with advancements in technology, and accompanying home and renovation designs for new and retrofitted construction.
But cost remains a key issue. Half of older Americans are unable to afford private-pay senior living facilities, and many remain wary of post-pandemic challenges in congregate care settings.
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