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Need seen for more senior housing

Aging population expected to boost demand

Durango is likely to need more housing for seniors as the baby boomers age, local housing professionals said.

“It is going to become a need just because of the fact that it’s such a beautiful place to live, and it’s a great place to retire,” said Ben Wahl, administrator at Cottonwood Inn, a rehabilitation center built last year in Three Springs.

The Wells Group, in its annual real estate forecast March 11, said demand for additional senior housing options is around the corner.

“The baby boomers are now 50-68 years old, with the older boomers beginning to think more about alternative housing,” the Durango brokerage said. “Development and employment opportunities servicing our aging population will grow.”

La Plata County has about 12,500 seniors, said Sheila Casey, the county’s director of senior services. Housing is an especially acute problem for low- and middle-income seniors with little savings, she said.

“The demand from low-income seniors for affordable housing is really enormous statewide, and it’s a problem locally,” she said. “And it’s expected to grow as baby boomers find themselves aging in place with little wealth accumulation.”

Cottonwood Inn has 40 private rooms for short- and long-term care. The inn has about 15 short-term patients, many of whom are in post-surgical rehabilitation, while about a dozen long-term residents are there for skilled nursing care.

Sunshine Gardens, off of 32nd Street at 25 Sunshine Court, is an assisted-living facility in Durango. Other facilities serve similar but somewhat different needs. The assisted-living center has 52 rooms. Sunshine Gardens also has four one-bedroom condos and a 16-room Country Home for patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Another area assisted-living facility, Evenings Porch Assisted Living, opened in October in Bayfield.

The older boomers are not yet leading to a crush of demand for senior-focused housing – both Sunshine Gardens and Cottonwood Inn have vacancies. But the 76 million people in the baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 are increasingly needing help.

“There are more people that are starting to need assistance,” Wahl said.

In the assisted-living facility’s Sunshine Room last week, Lela George, age 87, chatted with a friend who was playing cards. George said she moved into Sunshine Gardens last year with her husband from a ranch near Pagosa Springs. Her husband has since died. George said she enjoys living at Sunshine Gardens.

“It’s been very good,” she said. “They take care of you, but they leave you alone when you want to be left alone. That’s important.”

Erva Wilson, 91, lives in one of the independent-living condos. She crosses the street to the assisted-living center for her meals.

“There are quite a few activities,” she said. “You can arrange for bus transportation, and the meals have gotten much better.”

The need for more senior housing comes amid a tight market for housing. Single-family homes costing less than $500,000 are in particularly high demand.

Seniors come to Durango in part for high-quality medical care, said Bob Allen, a Durango real-estate analyst.

“The high quality of our local medical community is attractive to baby boomers,” Allen said in an email. “The state demographer predicts significant growth in the senior population in La Plata County. Strong growth in the labor force necessary to support that aging population is predicted. Both the seniors and the labor force require housing.”

cslothower@durangoherald.com



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