It has been a while since I’ve focused on senior housing, and since my first job in management was at a thriving senior housing community, I wanted to return to that subject. Paradoxically, I was a much younger man when I worked with seniors. I was all of 27 years old at the time.
The passage of time has not dimmed my memory of those days, nor has it convinced me that all that much has changed. I believe managing senior housing is one of the most rewarding, frustrating, inspiring, depressing, challenging and routine experiences that can be had in assisted housing.
I picture some of you returning to the previous paragraph and reading it again, wondering if I am sending a mixed message. Yes, in a way. But I’ve always seen residents of assisted housing, both senior and multifamily, as microcosms of life, with all its contradictions.
I also imagine this is a particularly challenging time for senior housing managers. People are living longer (a good thing), but the economic downturn has hit seniors particularly hard. There were no Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA’s) in Social Security this year for the first time in decades. In addition, Medicare B premiums are now at $103.50 per month. By contrast, those premiums were $31.30 per month twenty years ago.
And now we have EIV. This will hopefully make our professional lives a bit easier if it works as its supposed to do. That is a potentially big “if.”
My experiences with senior housing remain with me daily, as does my belief that as important as HUD and being in compliance are, the best reason for compliance is the positive impact we can and do have in the lives of our residents past, present and future.