Retirement homes becoming cozier

Toni Davis is on a mission to make nursing homes and assisted living communities feel more like home. According to a recent article in the New York Times, Davis, who is director of Green Hill Retirement Community in West Orange, New Jersey, told the news source that she thinks it is difficult to create a home-like atmosphere in large facilities.

“No matter what you do, you can’t get that homelike feeling in an institution because it’s too big,” she told the Times.
So Davis decided to take action. Along with about 20 other operators of nursing homes, built four small senior housing communities, but they are very different from large institutions.

These retirement homes only house about 10 seniors, and they are not large buildings, but small houses, called Green Houses. They have a small dining room and living room, in addition to the bedrooms.

Robert Jenkens from NCB Capital Impact, a company which helps finance Green Houses, told the media outlet that these smaller communities allow for more staff-resident interaction, and they allow more freedom and independence for residents.

“If you have one person doing everything, they can spend more time with the residents and get to know somebody as a real person,” he said.