ABSTRACT

The senior housing industry, continuing care retirement communities, and congregate developments reached a feverish pitch of expansion in the early and mid 1980s. Continuing care retirement communities began to unbundle service packages and offer long-term-care health insurance products linked to their communities. Factors tipping the scale toward moving could include specialized packing and moving services for elders that reduce the anxiety of moving; more low, moderate, middle, and mixed income facilities; facilities that offer indoor and outdoor maintenance services; and health promotion and personal care services. One survival strategy aimed at fixing distressed projects was to convert congregate housing into assisted living. Housing activists say that what is being built is the wrong product and not what consumers want or can afford. The American Association of Retired Persons conducts a national housing survey every three years to identify consumer preferences, concerns, and needs.