With advancing age comes a time when one's housing accommodation may no longer be suitable. Health problems, inconvenience, or safety concerns may not allow seniors to remain in the same home they've raised their families in. Many seniors, or their family members are researching alternate residential arrangements.

With the advent of the baby boomers retiring, more housing options are available to fit personal circumstances. It's important to find the arrangement that's best suited for an individual's social and physical needs.

Independent Living is probably what most people would prefer for as long as possible. This can be achieved by downsizing to a single story home and making a few alterations, such as installing well padded carpets, adding a wheelchair ramp, affixing grab bars over the bath tub and other safety features.

Communal Housing is an arrangement where several seniors share a private home. Homes with large common living areas and bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms are ideal for this type of set-up. A housemate arrangement keeps the cost lower and provides a built-in social network.

In Congregate Housing seniors live in independent apartments but are provided with shared daily meals and various support services, such as house keeping, shopping service or on-site medical staff.

Life Care Retirement Communities are similar facilities as Congregate Housing, but with the option, as seniors' needs change, to move into an on-site 24-hour nursing care unit.

Nursing Homes are government regulated full-care facilities that provide seniors with group meals, housing and personal care.

The days when the only option for seniors was to go to the "old folks' home" are luckily in the past.

For more information on senior housing, you can go online and visit the senior housing and care section at: http://www.helpguide.org/index.htm

Sandy Nelson
Realtor for Olympia Area Real Estate
www.sandynelsonrealestate.com