Santa Monica, CA – A new report has been released by the Milken Institute, detailing innovative solutions in financing care models and affordable housing for middle-income seniors.
Middle-income seniors, often referred to as the “forgotten middle” because their income is too high to receive government housing assistance but not high enough to afford quality senior housing and care comfortably, will bear the brunt of the consequences amid the current housing and care options shortage.
The Milken Institute report, titled Innovative Financing and Care Models to Scale Affordable Housing Solutions for Middle-Income Older Adults, lays out several areas of opportunity for action to address emergent senior care and housing needs. The report identifies four potential solutions to address barriers to middle-income older adults:
- Establish a social enterprise to refinance and rehabilitate existing distressed senior housing properties.
- Design a revolving loan fund to provide a sustainable source of long-term capital.
- Use a pay-for-performance model to attract upfront funding for housing and provide a new revenue stream to offset the ongoing costs of providing care by delivering long-term cost savings for the payer.
- Launch a regional pilot to generate data supporting partnerships between senior housing operators and payers in value-based care.
2Life Communities broke ground in March 2023 on its newest project, Opus Communities – seven years in the making and one of the first in the country designed specifically to house the “forgotten middle.” To reduce operating and staff costs, Opus will, among other innovations, require 10 hours of resident volunteerism per month (e.g., teaching a class or hosting a coffee hour), offer meal service just three nights a week, and encourage memberships in nearby Jewish community centers to reduce in-house entertainment and activity costs.
Read the full report, Innovative Financing and Care Models to Scale Affordable Housing Solutions for Middle-Income Older Adults, here.
View a panel at the Milken Institute 2023 Future of Health Summit, Reimagining Senior Housing and Integrated Care, here.
