Harvard and AARP say senior housing is the next big American crisis, according to a new report. From Senior Housing News, “A shortage of caregivers for baby boomers, high cost of senior living products and services and lack of disability-equipped housing reveal a seniors housing crisis as the 50-and-over population is projected to increase about 20% by 2030, according to a new report released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and the AARP Foundation.” Read more: http://seniorhousingnews.com/2014/09/02/harvard-aarp-say-seniors-housing…

We know that cohousing could be part of the solution!

Katie McCamant unearthed a 2012 pro-cohousing report from Governing, the online news magazine of state and local governments, “Senior Cohousing May be the Next Real-Estate Trend.” Per Katie, because the article is from Governing and former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros is quoted (along with Jim Leach and herself),
“This is one I would put in a bank financing package and/or give to appraisers.”

A couple of excerpts from the article:

“Once a relative novelty, cohousing developments continue to increase in popularity — and they could become a key part of the way developers and cities accommodate an aging population. Unlike their parents’ or their grandparents’ generation, baby boomers say they don’t want to decamp to Florida or Arizona upon retirement. They want to stay in the communities where they’ve spent their adult lives. For many experts on housing and senior issues, cohousing looks like an increasingly attractive solution.”

“Advocates have also called on city governments to help encourage cohousing by creating zoning policies that foster the type of dense development that includes cohousing. “It’s a matter of recognizing the new constituency and the new population and tailoring government programs to meet those unique needs,” says former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, who has written about housing options for aging Americans.”

Read more http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/housing/gov-aging-…