Seattle Times Series — “Seniors for Sale”
For the past several days I’ve been excitedly writing posts about the Green House Homes initiative and specifically about how the
Click image to go to the Seattle Times series.
continuing care retirement community where my parents live is planning to build these homes. The whole point of Green Houses is to make late life elder care safe, respectful, thoughtful, and homelike. The movement is a gift to seniors today, and as it grows it will be an even bigger gift to future generations — including people in my age group.
Dramatically juxtaposed in my mind these past few days and on the opposite end of the elder care spectrum, is the Seattle Times series, Seniors for Sale, which documents abuse of the elderly in non-regulated, privately run adult family homes. Describing conditions in Washington state, Seattle Times investigative reporter Michael J. Berens, has now written five parts of the series. Additionally the paper has posted videos, a database, and photos to further illustrate the issues covered in the articles.
Read and listen to Michael. J Beren’s interview with NPR All Things Considered host Melissa Block
Nuts and Bolts of Green House Planning: Part III
“Whatever form they take, there should always be as little distinction as possible between a Green House and the other housing nearby.”
What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World by William H. Thomas, M.D. (page 233)
The Green House vision projected by Dr. Thomas has become a small, growing movement with combined knowledge that benefits aspiring Green House builders like Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. NCB Capital Impact, a company that supports these building initiatives, is the repository of this increasing knowledge, organizing the information and experiences so newer Green House projects, like that at VMRC, benefit from lessons already learned.
I have visited the site and the trees are already there.
While VMRC has decided to build 10 Green Houses — the number it will take to replace Oak Lea — the community expects to build three houses in phase one. Money needs to be raised, stakeholder education has to continue, and a resident committee of people currently living in other VMRC neighborhoods is organizing to ensure the success of the project. Building these houses requires long-term “buy-in” from many people.
The first part of the project will cost $4.5 million. VMRC retained NCB Capital Impact to help with a feasibility study and pre-development planning and continues to work with the company today. Fundraising is ongoing, now in a silent phase, and if the recession has hampered things a bit, activity is proceeding enthusiastically, nonetheless.
The plan is to build VMRC Green Houses in a tree-filled area near other VMRC residences, a high school, residential housing, and the Eastern Mennonite University. Read more »
Becoming A Grown-up Child
One day in April 2007 my husband and I were the adult kids in our families — we are the only adult children
— and the next day we became what we laughingly call “real grown-ups,” helping first one, then two, and increasingly all three of our parents. It’s time to give back, and we do so willingly and happily. However the process is not easy, and it is not free from anxiety and tension. Check out the As Our Parents Age About page to learn more about the mission of this blog.
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As Our Parents Age by Marti Weston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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