The Boomer challenge: How to address affordable housing, workforce shortages

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Driven by aging Baby Boomers — members of the dynamic generation born from 1946 to 1964 — the number of Americans ages 65 and older will more than double over the next 40 years, reaching 80 million in 2040.

It’s a staggering demographic shift that leaders in the senior living space nationwide have spent years preparing for as they tackle the challenges and embrace the opportunities that come with it.

“Because of the really dramatic changing demographics, housing is one clear issue in which people call us all the time,” said Ann Marie Cook, president and CEO of Lifespan, a regional nonprofit headquartered in Rochester, New York that provides information, guidance and advocacy for older adults and caregivers.

Cook says many times older adults contact the organization for recommendations for easily accessible housing that’s affordable — something she says is getting more and more difficult to find as the population of older adults increases at an unprecedented rate.

An industry report from NIC MAP says the current senior living development pace shows a 550,000-unit shortfall by 2030, a $275 billion investment shortage that will grow to $1 trillion by 2040.

“ It’s a huge problem and you even see the governor talking about housing quite a bit in New York state,” Cook said. “Certainly, there’s a lot of things in the pipeline and I do credit New York for kind of putting those in the pipeline.”

Cook is also heartened by several nonprofits around the Rochester region building or discussing affordable senior housing projects, such as the Jewish Home, which recently broke ground on a 90-unit apartment building with moderately priced apartments for seniors on their Brighton campus.

Garry Pezzano, president and CEO of LeadingAge PA, a trade association representing over 400 senior housing, health care, and community services members across Pennsylvania, points to workforce shortages as another challenge in the industry as demographics shift.

“What we’re experiencing is growth in the older adult population that is outpacing the workforce population,” said Pezzano, who notes Pennsylvania ranks fifth in the nation in total older adult population. “So the issues we have and the opportunities we have to serve really are heightened here.”

LeadingAge PA — which has many mission-driven, nonprofit members — has been working diligently to address this issue in part through advocacy and legislation.

“We’re very fortunate in the state of Pennsylvania that Gov. Shapiro is sensitive to the care and needs of older adults and the services needed to age healthy,” Pezzano said. “He commissioned — and we took part in writing — a master plan on aging for Pennsylvania entitled ‘Aging Your Way,’ which speaks to working to make Pennsylvania a great place to age.”

Pezzano says that when you have a growing older adult population that is outpacing the workforce, you must figure out better and more efficient ways to care for people. Some of those ways include health literacy and teaching people how to participate in their own health and wellness.

“It is really about making sure that they get the kind of care that they want and need and deserve,” Pezzano said. “I often say that we believe our members and staff at LeadingAgePA view caring for older adults as not only a responsibility, but an honor.”

The care seniors want today is more holistic than it’s ever been, according to Brian G. Lawrence, president and CEO of FellowshipLIFE, a nonprofit organization that provides an array of senior living options and home care services throughout New Jersey.

“The boomer generation is upon us,” Lawrence said. “They’re looking for much more of an engaged focus on wellness and wellbeing and amenities and services centered around that so that they can live very healthy, long, productive lives.”

FellowshipLIFE’s approach to helping adults thrive holistically includes seven dimensions of wellness: physical, social, vocational, spiritual, intellectual, environmental and emotional.

“What people are looking for today is that higher level of engagement and activity, involvement within the community and to be connected to the greater community,” Lawrence said. “We invite people from the greater community all the time into our communities for that engagement and have them participate alongside our residents with their various activities, events and programming.”

Lawrence notes the challenges the industry is facing nationwide, including a severe shortage of housing, and says his organization is working hard to help by adding more homes to their properties where space is available.

“The housing available now and over the next 10 years is a small portion of the demand that’s going to be out there,” Lawrence said. “I just can’t stress that enough; there is not enough. We want to be part of the solution.”

Rob Henderson is the chief operating officer of Senior Resource Group, a developer and operator of senior living communities that serve more than 3,000 seniors in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Texas and California. He is also concerned about the supply of senior housing nationwide in the years ahead.

“We’re cresting toward that peak where we’re going to have a lot of people aging and wanting and needing to move into assisted living and not having much development going on,” Henderson said. “We’re going to see, I think, undersupply certainly in 5-10 years, unless things really turn around if the debt market gets better and development happens.”

As more and more older adults enter senior living communities, Henderson has seen that most choose where they will live based on amenities and comfort, but ultimately what keeps them there is a sense of purpose akin to what they felt during their careers or in their original communities.

“That happens when they can find ways to participate with the community in various ways like resident committees or volunteering,” Henderson said. “Even though they may not intuitively look for it, what a lot of our residents want is to continue that sense of purpose. That’s one of the things that we try to focus on and can provide.”

Caurie Putnam is a Rochester-area freelance writer.