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7/1/2010 10:14 AM 

I think it’s a pretty safe bet that we’re going to see more and more affordable senior housing communities built throughout the United States. If only because seniors—many of them anyway—will seek a way out of their physically demanding traditional homes as they age, our burgeoning elderly population will create a growth market for senior housing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, this sort of housing could be a halfway point or, with a bit of luck, a last stop in aging-in-place housing—certainly more pleasant and affordable than nursing homes (very expensive and, these days, for the very sick) and assisted living facilities (very expensive, with less government support available when you go broke). How could anyone hate this senior-friendly environment?

Well, as it turns out, quite a few people can and do hate it, when it arrives in their neighborhoods. NIMBY—“Not in my backyard”—raises its ugly head. I don’t think I ever realized the extent to which this could happen until I started receiving my daily Google Alerts senior housing reports. They include quite a lot of discussion about new senior housing projects, much of it quite positive, as you (or I) would imagine. But when things go bad, they really go bad. If you ever doubt there are some very dyspeptic Americans out there, unhappy with the way things are going, read some of the dozens of comments that appear on web coverage of local senior housing projects.

At public hearings covered by local media, municipal leaders and planners get slammed on several points—for example:

• “affordable” senior housing really means “low-income,” and with multi-generational low-income families living in one unit (an often-expressed fear), well, there goes the neighborhood
• multi-unit complexes of any kind don’t belong in single-family residential neighborhood or, if they’re already there, are likely to grow out of scale
• traffic will be awful, and where will all the residents and family members park?
• senior facilities are just too depressing a neighbor—why can’t we have some nice new homes instead, or a public park?

This isn’t just nasty griping—each has a grain of reality sufficient to motivate careful developers to deal with them upfront (and if they don’t have convincing come-backs for all of them at public hearings, watch out!). Admittedly, there could be other issues for which no ready come-back is possible—the story, for example, I saw of suburban Minneapolis residents fretting over a proposed Alzheimer’s facility they feared would send lunatic elders out into the streets threatening their children! Let’s just say, we have a way to go in comprehending the realities of long-term care.

For now, I’d suggest this: while anticipating senior housing development in your community that might someday be helpful to you and your loved ones, remember that this is by no means a slam dunk. Be on the watch for future public hearings on such projects—and, quite possibly, for some very unhappy neighbors.

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