How Aging In Place Can Help Take Independent Living To Its Next Iteration

Independent living operators can better cater to the incoming generation of older adults, according to Fynn Chief Marketing Officer and industry veteran Tod Petty, but only if they can help them age in place in a more dignified way.

Petty believes that older adults entering independent living communities are not downsizing and that they expect health care that evolves with their needs and a decent slate of amenities and services. But once an older adult needs some help with activities of daily living, such as medication management or help getting dressed, they are too often moved to assisted living, he said.

“That might’ve worked for the Greatest Generation. But for today’s middle-market senior? It’s not sustainable,” Petty wrote on LinkedIn in April.

Instead, Petty – who previously worked with Lloyd Jones and today works at Fynn under the direction of CEO Tim Gary, who also leads Galerie Living – believes independent living operators must flex with acuity, without sacrificing affordability or quality, in order to meet the needs of the boomers.

To get there, he envisions operators bringing in third-party staff and services to help provide medical care and treatment rather than moving residents to more expensive assisted living settings. Senior living operators would benefit from additional length of stay and a wider prospect base, he added.

“People are waiting to go in until they really need care, and that’s to preserve their capital, that’s to preserve their relevancy. These are not pension generation folks going in,” Petty told Senior Housing News. “We have to be able to flex in independent living and help people age in place.”

Petty is not the only senior living leader mulling the new direction of the independent living sector. Operators including The Aspenwood Company, Brightspace Senior Living and Merrill Gardens, are deploying home health agencies and licensing independent living beds for higher levels of care to keep up with the changing care needs of incoming residents.

Meeting care needs through home health, licensing

Operators are taking different approaches to gearing independent living offerings toward new customers’ wants and needs. Some of these efforts hinge on partnerships with home health agencies. Houston, Texas-based The Aspenwood Company is also using tech like AI, to group residents with similar life stories to help make their initial move-in process easier. The operator is rolling out new care options that let people age in their setting with extra precautions like fall-risk mitigation.

“If we’re able to mitigate those fall risks and have different technology, that’s a win-win,” Aspenwood President Heather Tussing told Senior Housing News.

The key to rolling out these kinds of initiatives is to make it optional rather than a requirement, Tussing added. 

Partnerships with home health agencies are also part of the solution for Aspenwood. The company partnered with Bayada Home Health Care to help residents age in place at its Village of Morehead location in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example.

“One size doesn’t fit all in independent living,” Tussing said.

Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Brightspace Senior Living is also piloting a third-party partnership to help residents age in place at one of its five communities. The company partnered with a home health care agency in April for its independent living population, according to Chief Financial Officer Brian Hendricks. The company is mulling rolling out similar partnerships at its other four communities depending on how the partnership goes.

Another upside to these kinds of partnerships is the fact that they are sources of referrals through healthcare providers, Hendricks said.

Seattle, Washington-based Merrill Gardens is expanding aging in place services for independent living residents. The bulk of the company’s independent living portfolio is fully licensed for assisted living, according to Chief Operating Officer Jason Childers. A typical Merrill Gardens community ranges from 60% to 70% independent living residents that are not receiving services of any kind, with the remainder made up of assisted living residents with some memory care. 

Being fully licensed for assisted living allows residents to transition among care levels without having to leave their room. Independent living and assisted living residents are not kept separate under that model.

“We build all of our apartments the same, whether it’s IL or AL,” Childers said.

By offering home health and other third-party services, senior living companies can increase length of stay and make their communities more attractive while also boosting revenue and occupancy.

“The goal should be to successfully age by bringing in great third party partners that can help me successfully age,” Petty said. “Now, I have a more positive aging model than I do when I’m just there to manage the decline of the residents.”

IL can play role in middle-market

Independent living is on average cheaper than assisted living. The average rate for assisted living increased by roughly 10% from 2023 to 2024, and totaled $5,900 per month and $70,800 per year, according to the 2024 Cost of Care Survey conducted by Genworth (NYSE: GNW) and CareScout.

Older adults belonging to the demographic often called the “missing middle” – defined as older adults who have too much in financial resources to qualify for government support programs but not enough to pay for senior living options longterm – face a “lifetime of struggle” due to the cost of assisted living, Petty said. By blending aging-in-place and independent living services and tapping into new payment sources, he believes that more operators can offer the services that tomorrow’s older adults will want and need at a cost they can afford for longer.

“Now, they might be able to move into an independent living that gives them those three meals security, their own apartment with these third-party health care continuums that they might not have to pay for because they have Medicare,” Petty said.

Brightspace believes its home health partnerships are a way for residents to “truly age in place,” as the cost of care would still be lower than moving on to assisted living even with care services, Hendricks said.

Other operators are experimenting with bringing in additional home health service offerings for residents at a time when new construction has slowed to near record lows in recent years. Juniper Communities, for instance, is using the methodology as a way to meet the increasing demands of baby boomers that are trying to stay home as long as possible. 2Life’s Opus brand allows residents to purchase services in smaller 30 minute increments than if they were relying on home care by itself, with president Lizbeth Heyer stating the practice can help ease the industry’s crisis in both access of care and affordability of services.

However, while more operators are exploring these practices, not all of them work out. The Springs Living previously launched an in-house home care provider, but CEO Fee Stubblefield declared it a “fail” due to low margins and a different worker profile.

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