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Here Comes the Boom Senior living facilities are adapting to the needs of baby boomers.
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By Peter Tonguette From the antiwar movement to gender equality, the baby boom generation helped spark social change during its years of youth and middle age. Now, as baby boomers enter their retirement years, they are about to set off another wave of changes. As ever greater numbers of boomers officially acquire senior-citizen status, senior living facilities throughout the country must keep up. That includes facilities in Central Ohio, which are contending with an influx of boomers as well as the specific needs and wants of that trailblazing demographic. “We all know the silver tsunami is coming and is here, technically,” says Lee Meredith of Friendship Village of Dublin. “The city of Dublin just did a housing study last year that says that the 65-plus population will actually increase by 38 percent in the next 20 years.” Those fig-
ures, Meredith notes, don’t account for population growth in the area that will undoubtedly add to the number of seniors seeking appropriate housing. The first issue to deal with is inventory. “[Boomers are] experiencing a longer life expectancy due to health care and medical advances, which is also resulting in them working longer and retiring at a later age,” says Amy Finke of the Franklin County Office on Aging. “On the other hand, we’re also seeing an increase in costs for health care, food, housing … so there’s also the need to work longer to maintain [and] make ends meet.” In time, boomers will eventually want to downsize, Meredith says, but when they do, they will face the same tight housing market as everyone else. “Is there housing available in the range that they’re looking for?” Meredith says. “[Boomers are] going from a home that had four, five
or six people in it, that was probably 3-to5,000 square feet, down to something that is more manageable on a single level that they can age in place in.” Senior living facilities see themselves as well positioned to respond. For example, Friendship Village of Dublin—whose levels of resident options include independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care—just completed a $100 million master plan renovation of its campus, including adding new apartment options and a memory care community. But, for boomers to find such complexes attractive, the facilities recognize that they need to appeal to the average boomer mindset. “Maybe their parents looked at retirement as, ‘I just want to sit in the library and read the newspaper,’ ” Meredith says. “We’re not your mom’s nursing home—in fact, we hate that terminology.” With that in mind, Friendship Village OCTOBER 2023 COLUMBUS MONTHLY
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