Making Lafayette a more senior-friendly community, in part by enacting a master plan for the city to improve “senior inclusion,” will be discussed Monday night by the City Council.
The city’s Senior Services Commission began research in October 2017 to create a local seniors master plan that would focus on the eight AARP/WHO “domains of livability;” the program was formally rolled out in
February. Residents of three local senior living centers were queried about what services they consider most essential.
The eight domains are buildings and outdoor spaces conducive to senior life; transportation needs of seniors; housing options allowing seniors to “age in place” to the greatest extent possible; work and civic
engagement; social participation options for seniors; respect and social inclusion; emergency and neighborhood communication needs; and improved access to community and health services. Each has been addressed at recent community focus groups.
This discussion continues at Monday night’s Lafayette City Council meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Lafayette Library & Learning Center-Don Tatzin Community Hall, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
It’s about time. California is about to undergo a huge silver tsunami in the next 5-10 years. What about Concord?
Concord has decided to leave all the older folks to the ravages of victimization,and focus on coddling those that just arrived.
Too bad this isn’t a regional effort instead of a Lafayette only effort. When we built the addition onto our house nearly 20 years ago, Jim designed it with our aging in mind, including a gentle rise and run of stairs, and 5 ft wide hallways for ease of mobility. People then told us we were wasting space, but so glad that we did this.
Yes Mary Fouts. In 10 years or so, the senior population that didn’t get mentoring or even conceive of this bizarre future will reach crisis, even though they were frugal, worked their entire life.
Sober, Rx free and willing to work, we are attacked daily. Insulted and hated for things we did not participate in. As a group we will be taxed out of our houses at a most vulnerable time. If we raised our children to “timeless old school” standards, they will also fall prey to an over engineered society that favors insect mentality to a creative and trusting disposition. I guess suicide is an option. Who wants to live past usefulness anyway.
Walnut Creek is building an “Over 55” continuing care community behind the Safeway on Ygnacio and a new skilled nursing/rehab is under construction on Mitchell Drive.
“Walnut Creek is building an Over 55 continuing care community” –
Are we referring to Viamonte? We attended the “orientation” sales pitch to find that a one bedroom unit (under construction) sells for $800,000 and two bed units go for over $1 million. Unit is condo/apartment style living. In addition to “owning” your own unit (but not the land), the monthly charge for a couple is approximately $6,000 per month which includes two meals a day, utilities, communal pool and outdoor space. “Assisted living” is an additional charge. Parking space was $30,000 extra.
Sometime you find a home that is good for aging in place. I was lucky. No stairs, everything in easy reach, faucets and door knobs that are easy to use. Yet I know it wasn’t built with a senior in mind.
Unlike Clayton which makes it “ugly” (Julie Pierce style) for senior citizens, and prefers they be warehoused (since Laura Hoffmeister wants their houses for families). Fortunately, more enlightened communities approach these matters less like the Sopranos and more like the leaders of the community we elected to represent us. Kudos to Lafayette for a maturity not seen in Clayton.
We live in Bellingham Washington and we were voted by AARP as the best town for seniors. Lafayette should find out how our town is so successful because we have been taking care of our seniors for years. We have affordable housing, we have senior sevice centers where seniors can go for all sorts of services from safety courses for making houses easier to access to how to plan aging at home. We also offer Free transportation to EVERY senior from their doorstep to anywhere in town. Sad that lafayette is just doing this now since this has been an ingoing issue in this town.
Geez….what a cry baby. Instead of blaming others for your shortcomings, how about doing something about it? There are plenty of homes in the bay area at many prices. Maybe try sacrificing a little…commuting, saving up for a down payment, etc. Buying a home takes a lot of commitment, responsibility and hard work. It sounds like you aren’t into any of those. Great example of the “me” generation.
BobFoo & concordy. Your remarks reek of ageism.
Most of the seniors you are disparaging started working as teens and many were kicked out of their homes at 18. After suffering years of slave labor and physical abuse, by your standards.
Most of us recycled AND wore “hand me down” clothing and went without dinner if we couldn’t stomach what was served.
The anger should be redirected at college alumni who are in a conserted effort trying to drag an elected president into failure and ruin.
The age group is decidedly, 25 to 45. Granted, the organizers are elderly college grads from the 60s and 70. Commies that promoted drug use and destroyed the family unit. Bone up on some current history before you jump to conclusions.
LOL@Justifiable anger – Obama was an elected president who McConnell and the Republicans tried to drag into failure and ruin – your “elected president” if elected again will attack what’s left of the “senior safety net” Medicare and Social Security – that’s on their agenda. Way to invoke the Commie scare when it’s your “elected president” who loves authoritarians…..
We really need to focus and not neglect our elderly. God willing, we will all be there someday. There really isn’t an affordable place for our seniors to go. My dad had to go into a wonderful home for seniors. it was on Concord Blvd. They took great care of him. But because he needed an injection, it cost my mom over $5000.00 a month to keep him there. I certainly don’t want to burden my kids with a bill like that. But trying to plan for this time in our lives is sooo expensive. Does anyone have any help in this matter?
Turn n Burn – I have no quick or easy answer for you. When Long Term Care Insurance came into being, it was pitched as the solution to the problems you describe. But as time went by, the actual care costs for LTC increased dramatically, at the same time the elderly population was growing larger as an overall percentage of the population.
This lead to insurers leaving the LTC market. For those that stayed in, (1) new policies were written with more restrictive benefits, and (2) premiums increased, and at times dramatically. A few years ago, one of my clients saw her LTC annual premium (on an LTC policy provided by her retired-from employer) increase by 47%. She’s paid into the policy for approx. 2 decades, and now wonders if she can afford the premiums year after year.
I suggest that clients view ‘saving for retirement’ to include LTC care costs and well as ‘regular’ daily living costs, and to save accordingly. For senior citizens who own homes, a reverse mortgage is also a possibility to obtain funds for LTC care when it is needed. However, one has to be very careful in reviewing the mortgage terms. Also, last time I looked at these mortgages, the home had to remain owner occupied. So, a single person living in a home could not permanently go into LTC never to return to the home. That event, if made known to the reverse mortgage company, could cause the insurer to demand that the reverse mortgage be paid off. That often requires selling the home.
When Obamacare was in its first rounds of discussion, LTC treatment and benefits was ‘supposed’ to be part of Obamacare. But it was determined to be too expensive to include, so was removed from consideration.
A study this year stated that the average monthly cost in CA for skilled care/semi-private room was $7,450, and $8,669 for a private room. I find those figures to be low for skilled care LTC in the Bay Area.
This is awesome! Kudos to Lafayette. I wish all cities took care of senior citizens. As far as financial concerns in Lamorinda, like any community – there are different levels of socioeconomic status. It’s best to leave it at that.
Actually, they weren’t immune to Propaganda & Social Engineering in their time just Like You Aren’t, Bob Foo.
Feels good to be a victim and blame others for your own lack of foresight though, right Bob?
@Bob Foo
My parents first home in the early 1940s was a small two bedroom in an area of Los Angeles that later became Watts. They made some improvements and sold it, moving to Concord in 1949 and buying a one bedroom house on a two-acre walnut orchard. They struggled, scrimped and saved to make the mortgage payment and property taxes … always.
In 1958, they sold the walnut orchard and the house to which they had added a bedroom and other amenities, and bought a new four bedroom house in Clayton. They continued scrimping and saving to make mortgage and property taxes, taking at one time a second mortgage. This was the house they would live in until their deaths.
My mother’s sister and her husband, on the other hand and during the same period of time, used the equity in their house in the same area of LA (what later became Watts) to buy a house in a better area and then rented out their first house for income. They kept doing this eventually having a number of rentals with their primary residence a condo on the beach at Hermosa Beach, as they grew older. By them they were very rich and started selling off their properties for even more income and did very well for themselves.
You have to start somewhere and work towards what you eventually want and you have to know what you want. It doesn’t come easy for anybody. From the outside, it just looks that way. Very few people can afford to go out and buy what they want and need the first time out. They work up to it by starting small, and building equity. So, don’t get discouraged. Just start saving for a down payment and look for something you can afford to get started. But, keep in mind that owning a house is a lot of work. It is so much easier to call the landlord when things go wrong, and they will go wrong.
My lack of foresight? I was born here…
@ Bob Foo How were we to know we’d be trampled by all these imports?
I feel your pain BobFoo. If we hadn’t bought many years ago or even traded up like so many family members recommended, we wouldn’t be able to live here.
Perhaps some extreme budgeting would help. I have always lived below my means, just so I can save. Yes, some of the local creeps will snub you but, you will thank your lucky stars later. Especially if you pair up with a quality person.