If you look on the US Housing and Urban Development website, attempts to make affordable senior housing a reality have been sporadic at best, dismal at worse. Lack of private investment because there is not enough profit is tantamount to failure when “affordable housing” is discussed. The need for starter homes and I guess you would call them last act homes is becoming more urgent.
I am starting a search for US communities that have been able to achieve this and I will highlight them as I find them. In an earlier blog I talked about a self run mobile home community in Florida: http://waystostay.org/little-houses-on-the-prairie/
But with changes in climate, being a snow bird who lands permanently in Florida or Arizona (two of the biggest retirement states) may be hazardous to your future. Meanwhile back to our neighbors to the north. I recently talked with a woman who visits Canada frequently and she says they are turning Americans back at the airport who come hoping to emigrate to a kinder gentler country? Get back on the plane is the polite but stern order.
Given their forward thinking on zoning, allocating resources and creating more resident centered senior housing, we will just be able to view from a distance. As America’s largest older generation matures with a lack of affordable senior housing and a constantly threatened social safety net, we can at least keep an eye on Canada and other countries as they progress into a clearer vision of the future.
