While Lou Sherman might artfully dodge the question of her age, she will admit she`s been around long enough to have seen a few things and know something of life.
And one of things she`s been noticing lately is that many apartment buildings are catching on to the fact that ”seniors,” those 62 and older, are an expanding rental market that deserves the same attention that has long been showered on yuppies.
”You know,” says Mrs. Sherman, who lives at the Mallard Lake Apartments in Wheeling with her husband, Larry, ”there are quite a few of us who rent and who prefer to rent, quite a few of us who want things that will make our lives easier.”
And apparently some mainstream apartment buildings (as opposed to those exclusively for seniors) are beginning to get the message. Although they may be more the exception than the rule, such buildings are wooing senior citizen renters by offering rental incentives, in-house services and social activities.
”It`s not that this group has simply come out of nowhere,” says Robert Sheehan, an economist for the Washington-based National Apartment Association. ”They are here and expanding. It`s important that rental communities expand their thinking, too, to keep up with a trend that`s already in place.” Seniors now represent about 16 percent of the nation`s rental market, according to the association.
A healthy change
Traditionally, when people thought of the senior citizen market, they thought of people older than 65, says Sheehan, and ”they also thought of people who were unable to care for themselves.”
But now, he says, the senior market is made up both of people who need supervised care and those who are healthy and active and able to live pretty much on their own.
”As people have become more health-conscious, more seniors are falling into the active senior category, and they are seeking housing that is in line with their lifestyles,” Sheehan says.
In looking for an apartment that matched their lifestyle, the Shermans sought a building that attracted people of all ages.
”There`s a wonderful mix of people of all ages here,” says Mrs. Sherman. ”For my husband and I it`s been a wonderful place to meet and to be with people. Sometimes we get in a mood where we just want to lay at the pool and talk.”
Mrs. Sherman says Mallard Lake also offers something else the couple were seeking: less of the ”busy part of life.”
”We wanted a little country with the city,” says Mrs. Sherman, who was living in Evanston at the time. ”Evanston, at least for us, wasn`t that way anymore.”
And, the apartment management was able to make another tempting offer: a $20 discount to all seniors on their monthly rent. That brings the rent, which includes cooking gas, heat and basic cable TV, to $645 to $695 for one-bedrooms and $745 to $795 for two-bedrooms.
In addition, there`s a social incentive. The Mallard Lake ”Over-50 Club” meets every Tuesday for potluck dinners and to celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries. The club also goes on field trips that take them on cruises and to the theater, and arranges for speakers to address the group on issues such as ”living wills” and even cataract surgery.
”I`m a little hesitant to call them seniors,” says Pam Chapman, leasing director of Mallard Lake. ”A lot of our seniors are young at heart, and they truly take offense at being characterized as senior citizens or elderly.”
Something for everyone
Lillian Parsons, vice president of Relocation Consultants Inc. (RELCON)
and co-publisher of the RELCON Apartment Directory, says she sees apartment communities offering more services in general, whether they`re geared to seniors or other residents.
”It`s common to see health club and fitness center amenities, concierge services, grocery ordering and pickup services,” Parsons says. ”Even those buildings that don`t offer specific programs for seniors have amenities that seniors will enjoy and need to make their life easier.”
Like Parsons, Sheehan agrees senior renters want many of the same things their yuppie sons or daughters are getting for their rental dollar.
”They want the amenities of a golf course, swimming pool, saunas, whirlpools, weight rooms and exercise facilities,” Sheehan says. ”They want to live in well-maintained and secure buildings.”
While the Central Park East Apartments complex in Arlington Heights doesn`t offer any special rental incentives to those 62 or older, many older residents are attracted to the complex because of the services it provides, says manager Mary Henderson.
”One of the biggest attractions for the older resident is that we`re a very personable complex,” she says. ”We don`t offer any discounts or rental incentives per se for seniors, but our services make them feel at home.”
For example, the complex gives each resident a birthday gift of Fannie May candy and a bottle of wine and waters plants and collects mail when residents are out of town.
About 16 percent of the complex`s residents are 65 and older, says Henderson.
”We have empty nesters who lived in the area and sold their homes, but we also have a number of older residents who moved here from retirement homes,” Henderson says. ”You ask them why and they tell you they don`t feel they are old and they don`t want to live in a place where everyone is dying.” Rents range from $820 to $1,165 a month.
Subsidized living
At the Cedar Ridge Apartments in Richton Park, two of the 10 buildings contain government-subsidized senior apartments, where the rent is based on what the residents can afford to pay, says property manager Kathy Parker.
To be eligible, residents must be at least 62 years old. Handicapped and disabled residents of any age also live in these two buildings.
The two subsidized buildings have ”captains” on each apartment floor, and each unit is equipped with an emergency bell button or cord to call an attendant in case a resident has a medical emergency or needs other assistance.
There is also a card on each apartment door that residents turn over when they retire for the night. The card reads: ”I`m okay.”
”If the card isn`t turned over to show they are OK, then one of the floor captains makes a point of trying to contact that resident,” Parker says.
Older residents also get a subsidy of sorts at the Somerset Apartments in Glendale Heights, which discounts their rent 5 percent, says Kristin Parkinson, leasing consultant.
Somerset`s rents range from $510 to $545 for one-bedrooms and $620 to $645 for two-bedrooms and include cooking gas, water and heat.
”Many seniors take advantage of the discount,” says Parkinson. ”It`s an attraction for some. But many of our older residents are also attracted by the mix of people who live here. We have a younger group, 25 to 35, and a lot of (seniors) like to be around the younger crowd. It helps in their outlook on life, too.”
Home sweet home
Still, even those buildings that don`t make any special allowances for seniors can hold an appeal for some of them.
A 73-year-old woman who rents an apartment by herself at Prairie Shores on Chicago`s South Side says she is simply happy to be able to stay in the two-bedroom apartment she moved into nearly 30 years ago.
”Some people have asked me if I wouldn`t rather live in a senior citizens home, but my children know better than to ask me that kind of question,” she says, requesting that her name not be used. ”They might think of me as old, but the thought hasn`t occurred to me.”
Candie Baker, the leasing director at Prairie Shores, says many of the seniors who live in the five-building complex, which is made up of all ages, like its location at 2801 S. King Drive because it puts them within walking distance of two hospitals, Mercy Hospital and Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, and other neighborhood conveniences.
”They move here when they are in their 40s or so and stay,” Baker says. ”They make friends, and it`s home. It`s a neighborhood as much as an apartment building, and that`s something most seniors want.”
