Bloomington, Ind.’s Evergreen Village, an affordable assisted living community designed by The Architectural Team. Credit: Andy Ryan
Affordable Housing’s Looming Senior Challenge: Caring for the ‘Silver Tsunami’
TAT Senior Associate, Anthony Vivirito, discusses with Tax Credit Advisor the “silver tsunami” of older American adults that will hit the housing market. For many of those seniors who have low or moderate incomes, stable, high-quality housing that can provide the care needed to help seniors age in place may be hard to come by.
By Michael Murney
In general, housing for older adults lands on a spectrum with independent living on one end and assisted living on the other. For LIHTC practitioners, these two styles of senior housing hold stark differences. On the independent living side, a provider’s goal is to bake accessibility into design, so that residents can live fully under their own power, while assisted living communities are generally more service-rich, with amenities and programs geared toward adults with more needs.
Although LIHTC is an effective and prolific affordable rental production tool, it is fundamentally housing-focused rather than senior-services-focused.
Anthony Vivirito, senior associate at The Architectural Team [says] “The service component of this is what is the underfunded part, not necessarily the bricks and mortar”. . . Vivirito says that local programs can go a long way in making low-income housing projects fit the needs of seniors.
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