Common Ground is increasingly housing older adults. In the last five years, the senior population (62 and older) within Common Ground’s permanent supportive residences has grown by 28%, and now represents nearly 20% of our total resident population. This is in part due to the addition of new buildings to our portfolio, including The Domenech, a residence in Brownsville, Brooklyn, exclusively serving homeless and low-income seniors. But the most significant contributing factor is the “aging in place” of existing tenants. By 2015, Common Ground conservatively estimates that this cohort will grow by another 67%.
In order to both anticipate and meet the needs of our older tenants, Common Ground is implementing a roster of programs within our buildings aimed at improving the health outcomes of our older residents. These programs are designed to enable seniors to maintain their independence as long as possible through links to home-based services, and thereby reduce systemic costs of caring for these individuals in institutional settings.