Senior citizen housing may seem like a minor concern during economic times like these, but with the baby boomers aging, a growing need for places elder folk can live will increasingly become a priority for society.
According to one Kingston builder with extensive experience providing affordable homes for older folk, constructing such housing can alleviate economic doldrums and help spark the new paradigm in green building that also promises economic renewal.
Under a new partnership model with a major Hudson Valley senior health care provider, the new homes for older citizens can also be a source of maintaining health and wellness with the help of professionals.
Those ambitious conditions are the basis of a new model being developed for affordable senior housing by town of Ulster-based Birchez L.L.C. and Elant Inc. of Goshen. It represents a new way of delivering health care and lifestyle support for seniors living in affordable housing communities where they can get everything they need from therapies and wellness to Internet access and a fitness center in a safe environment that is also home.
It also meets a great demand for affordable housing for the aged population regionally, said Birchez founder and managing partner Steve Aaron. He was speaking after the groundbreaking Feb. 9 of the new The Birches at Chambers, a $15 million, green-friendly 66-unit development for seniors in the town of Ulster.Â
“This is a huge step forward for us,” said Aaron, whose company has already built five senior housing units in Kingston, Esopus and the town of Saugerties. This is the first partnership the company has arranged with Elant, a nonprofit senior citizen health and housing corporation.
“We have been known for building very functional, very spacious, good quality senior housing, so by adding a partner like Elant to add senior services it really puts us into the future for this type of housing,” said Aaron.Â
Senior housing is about the only housing stock that seems to be getting built. Aaron said that is because builders are confident the need is there now and will continue to grow. “All you have to do is look at the demographics,” he said. “The baby boomers are coming of age and people are living longer.” He said over the next 10 years, the over-62 population will grow by 30 percent. “It”™s an industry that there is more need for than ever before,” Aaron said.
Birchez and Elant are working on two more projects that could break ground as soon as this fall. Aaron said the difference between his projects and other senior citizen housing complexes is that his projects are expressly aimed at providing good housing for senior citizens of modest means.Â
The $15 million project has 66 one- and two-bedroom units in two buildings and a caretakers”™ facility to allow for staff on-grounds 24 hours per day. The eligibility age is 62 or over and costs of rent range form as little as $300 per month to $800 monthly for the largest two-bedroom unit with a river view. Aaron said a comparable unit on the open market would rent for $1,300 monthly.Â
“We offset the cost of construction with low interest loans and grants that bring down debt service for conventional financing, which then allows us to offer much more affordable rents,” said Aaron. “But we are highly regulated. We can”™t just wake up one day and say we”™re going to hit the tenants with an increase. We have to apply for any rent increase, and actually have to prove that we need it and show that our expenses have increased by whatever that amount is we asked for.”
The affordability provisions of the projects endure for 50 years, he said, before the owners are allowed to charge market rate rents. “There are a lot of circuit breakers in the program to maintain those projects as affordable housing,” Aaron said.
The company can also afford to rent at affordable rates, he said, because it is controlling the costs of operating the units. Though the rents include heat and electricity and other amenities, Aaron said the new project is incorporating green building principles ranging from high-efficiency boilers to top-quality insulation, and energy-efficient appliances. Such care in building not only costs less to run the buildings, but enhances the comfort of the residents, Aaron said, particularly citing the radiant floor heating that reduces costs over time with efficient dispersal of heat and allows seniors to wake up and step onto a warm floor.
