Category Archives: assisted living

Massachusetts leads in funding for low income and accessible housing.

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Well, this might throw a glitch in our national petition for improved senior housing!  What might happen is that the Feds might say it’s a state responsibility, but we all know that few states are as liberal as Massachusetts.  Here’s what the MA legislation says, according to Mass.gov:

On Aug. 6, 2024 Governor Maura Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act into law. The historic legislation authorizes $5.16 billion in spending over the next five years along with nearly 50 policy initiatives to counter rising housing costs caused by high demand and limited supply.

The bill includes unprecedented authorizations in modernizing the state’s public housing system, boosts programs that support first-time homebuyers and homeownership, and resources to build more housing for low to moderate-income residents. It also includes many policy changes that will unlock housing production in our state, such as allowing accessory dwelling units, support for the conversion of vacant commercial space to housing and support for sustainable and green housing initiatives.

Gov. Healey believes Massachusetts can build more homes and build them faster, and the Affordable Homes Act, filed in October 2023, is how we will accomplish our mission.

The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities is now working on the implementation of the Affordable Homes Act. More information will be released in the coming weeks and months regarding key policy initiatives.

This is pretty much what our national petition is asking for on a national level. I wonder what this will all mean for our effort.

Mind Meanderings on a Rainy September Afternoon

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THE MOVEMENT IS MOVING

It’s only been a few days since the petition to improve senior housing was launched at change.org/improveseniorhousing. If you haven’t signed it yet, please click on the link and add your name to this crucial effort on behalf of affordable and humane housing for our elders.

As of this morning, there were 34 signatures, many of them, I think, from Gray Panthers, the state offices of which I contacted yesterday.  They don’t seen to have a national website.  I hope they will be sharing the information I sent them among their  members.

I also contacted The View, it see if I could get Whoopi Goldberg and the other women interested in the effort — maybe even sign the petition.  Of course, I haven’t heard back from them.  In addition, I submitted a personal essay on the subject the the AARP magazine; it takes 6 weeks to get any kind of response from them. I don’t know if the Letters to the Editor I submitted to local newspapers will be published.

I hope that the notices I sent to several elderbloggers I gleaned from an older elderblogger list might prove fruitful.  I know a few responded already.

If you have any other ideas how to publicize the petition, please leave a comment.

MY MUPPETS ARCHETYPES

My blogger son just posed a piece about his Muppet Archetypes, so I gave some thought to what mine might be. While my kids watched Sesame Street, I only  gave it my distracted attention.  But I do know the major characters, so I decided that Big Bird and Kermit are my Muppet archetypes.  Kermit because, well, he’s the dreamer; Big Bird because his is flamboyant and colorful and likes to dance.

Which ones are yours?

THE STRESS OF BEING A MALE DOG

Our beautiful and sweet purebred male Golden Retriever is getting has balls removed today. Well, soon he will be able to go next door to play with his already-altered male dog friend, Darby, without having to worry that Colt might try to mount him.

When he sees me, he has trained himself to come up to me with a toy in his mouth and then he vocalizes deep in his throat in response to my saying “Hello!”

Life’s Third Act

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Jane Fonda, who is exactly my age, has given any number of talks about life’s “third act”, which, as in theatre, is the last act of a production.  Billionaires like Fonda have the financial resources to live in a comfortable environment, meet their health requirements, and hire whomever they want to take care of whatever other physical needs they have.  But most of today’s elders are trying to figure out how to play out their last acts in more than just survival mode.

Even Fonda is confronting the problem of feeling isolated and extraneous as the major activities that gave her previous two acts meaning, purpose, and community slowly disappear.  Still in relatively good health, Fonda has taken to being an activist for various issues that are important to her as a way of continuing to feel useful and connected.  Good for her.

But what about the rest of those middle class retired seniors who struggle with feeling isolated and purposeless because of health issues, lack of financial resources, and inadequate living conditions.

Under these circumstances, what are their choices for how they perform in this last act of their lives?  How we elders live depends and awful lot on where we live, and our choices are limited.

I am fortunate that I live in my own rooms in my daughter’s house.  We are three generations in this house:  my daughter and son-in-law, my grandson, and me.  I contribute financially each month to offset the my share of the costs of utilities, phone, cable and streaming television, and food etc. I’m responsible for my breakfast and lunch food, and my daughter cooks dinners for all of us.  Luckily for me, my daughter is a born caregiver and my son-in-law is an easy-going guy.  He even does the dishes.  I am one of the fortunate ones.

A recent post on theseniorlog.com links to an article on the growing trend of intergenerational living. At its best, intergenerational living

brings together people of all ages in an environment that encourages interaction, socialization and activities that are beneficial for all.

But many families, for various reasons, can’t pull this off.  As reported in the Jesuit Review

Many of us in the current generation of senior citizens also must cope with our family members’ living far away. According to a study from 2019, about one-quarter of Americans live more than 30 miles from their nearest parent or adult child, but that share is higher for college-educated individuals, who often move away from their hometowns to pursue their careers. Migration has always existed to some extent, but until recently, when families migrated, they often included adult children, grandparents, cousins, nieces or nephews. The current ease of transportation and communications has actually resulted in limited, non-physical connections for a significant portion of society.

It has also destroyed much of family life. Family elders may end up removed from close contact or routine communication with younger members of their clan.

So, what are the other housing options for playing out your last act? You can either “age in place” or pay enormous fees to live in an assisted living facility — both of which come with their own major problems.

Assisted living monthly fees run from $3000 a month to over $10,000 a month, depending on the level of services you will get.  One place I found online — an innovative and progressive living situation for elders that offers individual cottages and apartments in a community-based setting — does not even bother providing information about cost on their website.

Aging in place is also not as good an answer as you might think, either.  According to a an article on Housewire ,

Aging in place is seen as a leading “social barrier“ to healthy aging in America in 2024, according to a new survey conducted by Alignment Health. The survey was first reported by McKnights Senior Living.

“As more seniors choose to live independently and longer in their own homes, aging in place brings its own set of challenges: nearly seven out of 10 consider aging in place a top social barrier to their health and well-being,” the organization said of its survey findings.

I don’t know if the new administration is prepared to tackle the issues that are preventing most elders from having a successful Last Act.  Maybe we all need to band together somehow (like the supporters of reproductive rights) and organize some sort of protest. How about our rights to live before we die? I wonder if Jane Fonda might be interested in taking the lead.