In the typical apartment style Independent Living Facility, or ILF as the industry calls it, residents are expected to eat meals in a common dining hall and live in small private spaces under the guise of encouraging social interaction. Typically, new residents to these communities enjoy the setting for a few months, then begin to feel bothered by the experience.  It's like being on vacation for too long and wishing to be back at home.

One of the latest trends in senior housing are resort style retirement communities.  These larger facilities often have swimming pools and even golf facilities and in-house shopping. They typically offer "gourmet" meals in a restaurant setting.  Sounds appealing, doesn't it? Some folks love the lifestyle. Others find themselves paying for amenities they rarely or never use and like many in the "big box" apartment style facilities, get tired of the social pressures and long to return home.

The term "Active Retirement" has been so overused in the retirement industry that it's becoming silly.  What exactly is active retirement?  The big box model has a lot of organized activities that often have the feel of kid's summer camp.  All too often, you start to feel like a bunch of old people being herded around town.  Our philosophy at Horizon Village is one of enabling, not controlling.  Sure, we have activities, but the difference is that the residents of Horizon Village define what activities they want and our coordinator works to facilitate those desires - but only if necessary.  

At Horizon Village, we're very fortunate to have Arlene, a retired school teacher.  Arlene is passionate about life and her chimes choir and she manages every aspect of this activity. Horizon Village provides the space in our community room, but our involvement ends there. Arlene's chimes choir is very popular among our residents and is truthfully a very fun activity.  In May, Arlene's chimes choir participated in the Boatnik festival parade in Grants Pass. Arlene and other residents decorated the float and organized all of the activities surrounding the event. Arlene is the embodiment of active retirement and Horizon Village is a perfect fit for her ... and we love having her here. 

Active Retirement Living is a primary objective in our community, consequently, we have a higher than typical population of men.  We have a number of guys who are passionate about fishing. We have a geologist who has converted his garage into his rock laboratory. We have a number of folks who love RV-ing and are gone for weeks on end.  A number of our residents love gardening.  Art and Millie have gone so far as to turn part of the open space behind their home into a manicured lawn.

The focus of Horizon Village is enabling seniors to have the maximum amount of control regarding the direction and enjoyment of their lives.  As most anyone owning a home today surely agrees, home ownership can limit your ability to control your direction in life.  The choice of renting vs owning during the later years of one's life can provide a level of freedom that can truly support your enjoyment of life. We have a long list of people who would love to move to Horizon Village if only they could sell their home. As a senior, you must consider what happens to your investment of a home if your lifestyle needs change.

If you choose to buy-in to a retirement community, you are often locking yourself into a location that in today's market is very difficult to change.  What do you do if you don't like the community you've bought in to? Can you sell at all? Will you take a financial loss?  At Horizon Village, we have no buy-in fees and rent is month to month.  You get maximum flexibility and control over your finances.  The real winners are those who sold their homes a few years ago and are now renting at Horizon Village.

At Horizon Village, with the exception of telephone, we bundle the services you need to live into the rent.  The end result is that while your rent looks a lot higher than the normal rent in a mixed age neighborhood, in reality, it's not.  For those of you who want to crunch some numbers, here are some statistics.  For every dollar of rent at Horizon Village, nearly 1/3 goes to pay for services: utilities, common space areas, multi-purpose community room, life enrichment coordinator, maintenance, landscaping, and services management.

Independent Living Facilities / Age Restricted Retirement Communities: 
Independent Living Facilities, or ILFs, are typically large facilities focused on a "big box" or apartment complex usually offering meal service. An ILF may or may not have a cluster of cottages.  Age restricted retirement communities can be loosely defined as a group of housing where the age of residents is controlled by policy.  There is a huge variety of offerings in this category with the commonality being no health care services offered. 

Assisted Living Facilities:
The next level of care in terms of support is the Assisted Living Facility, or ALF (Also called Residential Care for the Elderly or RCFE).  Nursing homes typically fall under this category, although the retirement industry is moving away from the term "nursing home" for obvious reasons.  Life in an ALF is much more controlled but can offer a higher level of services for those who require more care.  Care can include med assistance, bathing assistance, and addressing of certain other physical needs. Meal plans are always included.

Alzheimer's or Memory Care Facilities:
The highest level of care and control is in an Alzheimer's Care Facility.  These address the special needs of persons inflicted with this particularly scary disease.  Let's all hope we can age gracefully without suffering this infliction. Severe Alzheimer's is difficult to manage in any home and this is true for Horizon Village as well.  In mild cases, in-home care can be a solution, but as the disease progresses, specialized facilities usually make the most sense.

Residential Care and Adult Foster Care:
Generally, adult foster care is a live-in situation where up to 4 or 5 adults over 55 live in a shared home with care being provided by one or more persons.  Residential Care can include up to 10 residents. Residents must be mentally healthy.  This option offers little personal privacy and very limited socialization.

Congregate Housing:
Congregate housing is shared housing where typically each resident has a private room and common areas like kitchen and living room are shared.

Seniors Only Apartments:
As the name implies, this is an apartment building or complex dedicated to housing seniors only.  These can vary from wonderful to awful.

Modular Home Communities (trailer parks):
Modular homes are a viable option for some people.  There are many age restricted offerings that cater to seniors. Most have limited to no services.

ECHO Housing (Elder Cottage Housing Opportunity):
Also known as a granny flat, this is a situation where a senior is renting a private area of a home that has a separate entry.  These fall under the jurisdiction of Foster Homes but generally have no services of any kind for the seniors.

Shared Housing:
As the name implies, shared housing is just like when younger people rent a home together.