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Seniors Renting
For Convenience, Comfort
TheStar.com
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http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/450797
There's no maintenance and
most other needs are covered in assisted-living
buildings
June 28, 2008
David Hayes
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Since June is seniors' month, I have been thinking
about my mother and housing. Like so many adult
children, a few years ago my sisters and I found
ourselves worrying about where our widowed mother
would next live. At 92, her mind is, as she might say,
"sharp as a tack," and she's both fiercely independent
and in good health (except for an assortment of
relatively minor infirmaries that come with aging).
But Toronto is an expensive city and the family agreed
that a move from her lovely apartment on the edge of
Leaside to more-affordable quarters would help protect
her savings.
I devoted my energies to getting my mother signed up
for co-ops. They're an excellent solution to
affordable housing but since most are run by
non-profits, developers have little appetite for them,
and for many years governments have lacked the will to
back co-ops. In Toronto, waiting lists are long and I
knew it might be years before my mother got a call
from one she liked. Fortunately, one of my sisters
lives outside Fenelon Falls and found a lovely,
affordable apartment for her in town, in a building
overlooking the dramatic falls that are part of the
lock system on the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Ours was a happy ending to a story all too familiar to
Canadian families. Thanks to the Baby Boom generation,
the number of seniors in Canada is projected to
increase to 9.8 million by 2036, and their share of
the population will almost double. My mother herself
illustrates another fact: Women account for about
three-quarters of people over 90. But seniors are also
living longer and, in general, are healthier than
previous generations. Also, on average, they're more
active, better educated and Internet-savvy. Moses
Znaimer, the new guru of the 50-plus generation, uses
the buzzword "zoomers" to suggest that your average
senior doesn't feel very senior.
Nonetheless, when it comes to housing, only the very
wealthy can assume they'll live worry-free into their
80s, 90s and even beyond. Among the conclusions in a
2006 report from the city of Toronto called "Housing
Toronto's Seniors: Planning for the Future," is an
acknowledgment that access to high-quality and
affordable housing options, as people age, is
essential. There's also a recognition that seniors
need a variety of housing options, policies, programs
and services that recognizes the diverse character of
this demographic.
Broadly, there are three
kinds of housing for seniors:
Long-term care facilities are what we used to call
old-age homes or nursing homes. They're for seniors
with significant health issues that require ongoing
care.
Assisted-living residences are for people who, while
relatively autonomous, need some help with personal
care or preparing meals.
Independent living is for self-sufficient seniors
interested in their own, easy-to-maintain apartments.
At the same time they're attracted to the camaraderie
and social activities found among fellow seniors and
also appreciate the security of knowing there are some
support services available.
Recently, I sat in the dining room of one of these
independent living facilities, having lunch with Nella
Dunn, marketing director of Chartwell REIT's newest
residence, Pickering City Centre.
It's an eight-storey, 117-unit building with suites
ranging from 600-square-feet one-bedroom units to a
rambling two bedroom of 1,156-square-feet. Considered
a "hotel-style" residence, it provides lunches and
dinners and has a self-serve bistro, exercise room,
theatre that shows movies every evening (seven days a
week) and a wellness centre with a round-the-clock
attendant. Single women make up about three-quarters
of the residents; the rest are couples and single men.
"Some people have come to us when they're moving out
of a family home they may have lived in for 40 or 50
years," Dunn says. "Others have already downsized,
often to a condo, but are attracted to this kind of
residence. Many choose it to be closer to family and
because we're close to all the amenities of
Pickering."
My question, of course, is
why people at this stage in their lives decide to
rent?
Convenience, Dunn says. Most have owned property but
have reached a stage in their lives when they want to
be able to easily access their wealth. Having most of
their equity tied up in real estate no longer gives
them peace of mind. And even if they own a condo
outright, maintenance fees and property taxes only go
up, not down.
At first glance, the rents at Pickering City Centre
sound high. One bedrooms range from $3,100 to $3,600
and two bedrooms range from $4,195 to $4,645. But, as
Dunn points out, except for telephone and cable, these
are all-inclusive, which includes meals, weekly
housekeeping and laundry service, access to the
wellness centre, and a full calendar of recreational
and social activities. Dunn gives prospective
residents a monthly costs chart to fill out, which is
usually eye-opening.
"Our residents often say they used to write many
smaller cheques every month to cover their costs,"
Dunn says. "Now, they write one that covers almost
everything. "There was a time when it was always the
adult children approaching us, with no idea what to do
or what was available. Today, more and more often it's
seniors themselves being proactive. They call to say
they found out about us while researching on the
Internet. This is the evolution of retirement."
In my next column, we'll meet some seniors who have
made the transition to renting in Pickering City
Centre. David Hayes is an author and award-winning
feature writer who has been a renter most of his life.
If you have stories or information to share about
renting, reach David at
lifelong_renter@sympatico.ca. |
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Study Shows More
Benefits Of Sunshine Vitamin
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL23240037
Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:00pm EDT
By Michael Kahn
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) -
People with a vitamin D deficiency are
likely to die sooner than people whose blood contains
higher amounts of the so-called sunshine vitamin,
Austrian researchers said on Monday.
Their study -- the latest to suggest a health benefit
from the vitamin -- showed death rates from any cause
as well as from heart-related problems varied greatly
depending on vitamin D.
"This is the first association study that shows
vitamin D affects mortality regardless of the
(primary) reason for death," said Harald Dobnig, an
internist and endocrinologist at the University of
Graz in Austria, who led the study. The body makes
vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight -- a
reason for its nickname, the "sunshine vitamin". It is
added to milk and it is found in fatty fish like
salmon but many people do not get enough of it.
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and is
considered important for bone health. In adults,
vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis, and it
can lead to rickets in children. A number of recent
studies have also indicated vitamin D may offer a
variety of other health benefits, including protecting
against cancer, peripheral artery disease and
tuberculosis.
Last week, U.S. researchers said vitamin D may extend
the lives of people with colon and rectal cancer.
Dobnig and colleagues, who reported their findings in
the Archives of Internal Medicine, studied more than
3,200 people with an average age of 62 who were
scheduled for a heart examination between 1997 and
2000. During an eight-year follow-up programme, the
researchers found that the quarter of volunteers with
the lowest levels of vitamin D in their blood were
more likely to have died. Researchers found the risk
was doubled for people with between 5 to 10 nanograms
per millilitre of vitamin D in their blood, even when
factors such as heart disease, exercise and other
conditions were taken into account, Dobnig said.
Most doctors believe people should have between 20 to
30 nanograms per millilitre of the vitamin in their
blood, he added in a telephone interview. What causes
this effect is not clear, but Dobnig pointed to a host
of studies suggesting links to high blood pressure,
cancer and fractures as places to begin looking. The
potential health risk of low levels of vitamin D
should also prod physicians to be more aware of the
problem, especially for the immobile, elderly and
others who spend a great amount of time indoors, he
said.
Many doctors agree that people with low levels of
vitamin D cannot make up for it safely by sitting in
the sun, but should take supplements. "These results
should prompt us to perform vitamin D measurements on
a more frequent basis especially in populations at
risk," Dobnig said. (Reporting by Michael Kahn;
Editing by Maggie Fox and Catherine Evans) |
