The Hostess City of the South, a.k.a. Savannah, Ga., will be home to this year’s Environments for Aging Expo & Conference, which runs April 21-24 at the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center.
This year’s event will feature three keynote sessions on a range of topics, including recognizing and fighting ageism, the growing market for multigenerational housing, and the future of memory care.

Seniors’ growing desire for multigenerational living environments in walkable, amenity-rich locations is driving the industry to adopt new ideas and partnerships. During his keynote session at 8 a.m. on Monday, April 23, Ryan Frederick, founder and CEO of Smart Living 360, a real estate development and operating company, will talk about addressing old assumptions, the drivers behind this changing landscape, and the challenges—and opportunities—that come with making multigenerational housing a reality.

Environments for Aging: How has the approach to multigenerational senior housing changed in the last decade?
Ryan Frederick: Honestly, it hasn’t changed much, in large part, because no one has focused on it in an intentional way. The senior living industry has done a remarkable job of creating a greater number of independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities across the county. However, the industry has an implicit assumption that seniors wish to live exclusively with and around other seniors and there are few alternatives to the traditional senior living product types.

It’s also fair to say that prior generations, such as the Greatest Generation, didn’t insist on having residential options that allowed them to comingle with other generations. But part of the irony in placing older people in settings just with older people is that it’s a relatively recent phenomenon. We tend to forget that it wasn’t until the 1960s that active adult communities and skilled nursing facilities were built in scale. Historically, people of all ages lived in proximity to each other with benefits to all involved.


What’s pushing the industry to shift this thinking?
The biggest driver is changing consumer psychographics. Baby boomers don’t have the same expectation and desire to move to a “retirement community.” It doesn’t mean that there won’t be boomers interested in living with other boomers. However, it does mean that there will be more people questioning some of the fundamental tenets of the senior living industry, including living exclusively with other seniors in a high-service model.

While consumer preference is the dominant driver, it’s not the only one. As we enter an era with people living longer and fewer people with pensions, affordability will be of greater significance—even for those who are considered affluent. The stress point will be greatest, however, for middle-market older adults, who will not be able to afford much of the current products offered by the senior living industry and will need to look to other options, including those that offer a price point that attracts a wide range of people.

In addition, technology will become more significant in driving change. In today’s senior living models, much of the service package is offered on a bundled basis: meal plans, care plans, etc. With technology, more services can be delivered on an as-needed basis with an à la carte pricing model, creating more cost-effective models that will allow people to receive services of all types in a non-senior living environment. Moreover, innovative uses of technology will allow people to use their own health data to stay healthy, reducing or delaying the need for traditional senior living environments.

What’s the first step to creating more intergenerational communities for seniors?
Consumers need new models to test and try out, and developers need to iterate and improve on these models. The larger trend of walkable, mixed-use residential development has been happening for quite some time. Downtown and suburban developments of this type have naturally attracted a range of generations. In this sense, multigenerational housing is around us all.

However, traditional apartment developers haven’t typically considered the needs of older generations, including designing physical spaces, creating a sense of community, and providing lifestyle and health services. On the other hand, the senior living industry has largely been developing full-service, age-restricted communities. There are reasons for this: Many senior living communities have performed well, and the investor community has encouraged developers to stick to the knitting. The result is that a gap exists between what multifamily and senior living developers are creating.

What obstacles do we need to overcome to close that gap?
The first hurdle is for developers to do something that’s different than what they’ve typically done. For apartment developers, it requires an appetite to create something new and assume the risk and reward that come with that opportunity. For senior living developers, it’s overcoming a similar obstacle of tackling something new and different. Senior living developers and operators can suffer from the “curse of knowledge” in that they think they know what seniors are looking for, and this can create institutional blind spots.

What do you hope the audience at EFA Expo will take away from your talk?
That the next generation of senior living is not senior living. We have a collective opportunity—and responsibility¬—to lean on the legacy of our past and on the science and technology of today and create compelling communities that enhance the well-being of people of all ages. In doing so, we can help create better lives for a far greater number of older adults, including those with more modest incomes, than today’s senior living will ever be able to do.

More can’t-miss keynotes:
• Kick off the 2018 EFA Expo with the opening keynote presentation “This Chair Rocks: How Ageism Warps Our View of Long Life,” at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 22. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite is on a mission to debunk common misconceptions and myths about late life and expose the ageism that underlies them. Her presentation will balance facts with humor as she tries to change the way attendees think about aging. [headshot: Ashton Appleton Photo]
• Join Jennifer Kovacs Silvis, editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging, as she moderates a spirited discussion with a panel of industry leaders: “Wandering Through Memory Care: What’s Next on the Horizon.” The closing keynote session at noon on Tuesday, April 24, will paint a picture of what designers and providers need to know about designing care settings that improve outcomes and experiences of older adults experiencing memory loss and dementia. Additionally, the group will look ahead at what’s to come for care delivery and treatment, and how the built environment must evolve, as well. [run with JKS’ headshot]

For more on EFA Expo, including registration and scheduling details, visit EnvironmentsforAging.com.