New Senior Living Facilities to Reflect Pandemic Impact

Look for more built-in high-tech features in the nation’s new senior living facilities, partly in response to the Covid-19 impact, says several industry sources.         
                                  
Writing in Forbes, Ashutosh Saxena, chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence company Caspar AI, is forecasting a greater presence of “voice-command technology and automated notifications, including remote detections of falls” allowing for family members and staff to stay on top of a resident’s health even from a distance.

Other facility changes, according to Senior Housing News, will see the adaptation of “touchless technology, more intensive air purification systems, and dedicated health spaces, and on-site clinics.”

The Louisville, Kentucky-based company Atira Senior Living last fall rolled out a new model called the “Community of the Future,” emphasizing larger living units and more common areas allowing for social distancing.

Industry analysts additionally predict that in response to a general exiting of America’s largest cities on the part of seniors during the worst months of the pandemic, smaller cities and even rural areas will be seeing more senior living construction.

Such parts of the country, notes Senior Housing News, are increasingly being seen as “hotbeds of new development.”

While analysts believe it may take a while for the senior housing market to return to where it was in late 2019 and early 2020, well-funded projects in quality markets will remain steady. 
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One factor fueling new senior living construction: simple numbers. The country’s Baby Boom population is expected to reach 74 million within the decade, nearly twice the estimated number in 2012.

​By Garry Boulard

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