Planning for an aging population - Growing in place

NRU
June 3, 2015
By Leah Wong

As municipalities struggle to plan for a growing population with strained budgets, experts say a different approach to accommodating seniors is needed.

Creating communities with diverse housing stock allows people to move within their community, accommodating lifestyle changes. It can also change the demand for services and reduce the need for age-related discounts.

“There’s been a recent shift from ‘aging in place’ to ‘growing in place,’” said Hemson Consulting partner Russell Mathew. Rather than keeping people in the same house for their entire life, the new focus is on keeping people in the same community. “We do want [people] to move around to meet our planning policies and free-up single-family homes, but you should be able to do it right close to home.”

Mathew told participants of a Ryerson University Centre for Urban Research and Land Development seminar Monday that older people are choosing to stay in their homes longer and longer. This is a change in tradition when adults used to stay in their family homes until their spouse died.

While seniors prefer to stay in their homes as long as possible, Mathew said building condos in areas with large senior populations is proving to be a successful endeavour. They tend to sell quickly even if the community is initially opposed to the increased density as they offer options close at hand that enable empty nesters to stay in their neighbourhoods while downsizing. A collateral benefit is the single-family homes that get added to the marketplace.

One community where this has been successful is Port Credit in Mississauga. FRAM Building Group president Frank Giannone told participants at a Canadian Urban Institute event Tuesday that the company has seen area residents transition from single-family homes to townhomes to condominiums to retirement homes as their lifestyles change. This has been possible because of the range of housing types in close proximity.

FRAM’s development in Port Credit is centred on a community hub with lots of amenities, public gathering spaces and access to transit. Giannone said “location, location, location” allows people to be independent for longer.

But ensuring there is access to a range of housing forms is only one part of the equation when it comes to making communities age-friendly. Th e other challenge is ensuring there are municipal programs and services that enhance seniors’ quality of life. Economist and Trent University professor emeritus Harry Kitchen said that one of the challenges for municipalities is the strain on budgets caused by subsidizing services for seniors.

“Some [seniors] are better off than the people paying higher taxes or richer people who are using subsidized services,” said Kitchen. The assumption that providing services for seniors has to be done at a discount needs to be re-examined because subsidizing services based on age can be costly for municipalities. It can also have the unintended outcome of encouraging seniors to remain in large homes where they are often isolated from the community.