SENIORS HAVE CHOICES

New options for assisted living in Anchorage

Alaska’s population over the age of 65 topped 100,000 for the first time in 2021. This age group is projected to grow faster than any other cohort for the next decade or so. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s September issue of Alaska Economic Trends anticipates a rising tide of seniors until a peak in 2035, when the oldest Baby Boomers reach 90.

This demographic pulse needs somewhere to live. When Boomers were younger, options for their parents or grandparents were often limited to a full-service nursing home or toughing it out alone or with family during their golden years. These days, though, Alaskans have more options, ranging from independent living to assisted living and even specialized dementia care.

Alaska Native corporations, housing authorities, private companies, and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation are busy building innovative senior housing and care complexes.

Fulfilling Development

The first phase of the East View Assisted Living project opened in midOctober as a home-style approach to senior living.

Five individual homes, all with a unique name and color scheme and accommodating five residents each, are opening in phases. The Brooks house is the first and is being followed by Augustine, Chugach, Denali, and Edgecumbe in early 2023.

The Great Room at Maple Springs in Anchorage echoes the grand lodges of Alaska.

Maple Springs’ outdoor courtyard is an ideal space for residents to enjoy nature and engage in activities and conversation.

Maple Springs Anchorage

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and Cook Inlet Housing Authority joined hands to build Ch'bala Corners, a multi-generational housing complex in Anchorage's Spenard neighborhood.

Alaska Housing Finance Corporation

With lots of windows, stunning mountain views from its spot at the top of a hill, bright rooms bathed in natural light, high ceilings, and cheery spaces, each home has been designed to create a comfortable living experience for residents.

Residents are charged for room and board separately from supportive services provided by 24-hour staff. “The costs vary on type of room and individual needs of residents,” says Erica Miller, manager of East View, an Anchorage-based company that built the homes with private funding.

“At East View, we approach senior care understanding that each day entrusted to us is ever increasing in value during this phase of life,” states James Drayton, East View director. “We recognize that each day should be lived with purpose, incorporating elements that bring joy and fulfillment. This is done by providing our customers with a space designed by Alaskans, for Alaskans based on their unique values. Through thoughtful design, our program uses clients’ input to shape environment, cuisine, activities, and, ultimately, relationships that make a house a home.”

Design for Dementia

Tucked in the woods off Tudor Road in Anchorage’s hospital district sits the Providence Horizon House complex that offers an array of supportive residences for seniors in all stages of aging.

The Birch and Spruce cottages are designed for residents with Alzheimer’s disease or other memory conditions. The first of their kind in Anchorage, the cottages are attached by a walkway to the Horizon House apartments so that a resident never feels lost, even if memory loss renders them unable to navigate outside their home.

Birch and Spruce are the two large cottages containing eleven bedrooms each, and they include assistance with daily living activities and lifeenhancing activities designed around dementia care.

“All apartment units are studio-style apartments with a private bathroom,” says Mikal Canfield, senior manager for external communications for Providence Health and Services Alaska.

Canfield says Providence is not currently planning to expand its assisted living offerings in Anchorage, but the healthcare provider is building a new facility for elders with chronic health issues who experience homelessness. That project, called Alaska House,

Providence's Horizon House offers a spectrum of senior living accommodations for seniors according to their needs.

Providence Alaska

is scheduled to open next August in Midtown, across Eagle Street from the Providence network’s St. Elias Specialty Hospital. The initial stage is a fourstory residential building with fifty-one studio units.

Alaska House will have additional spaces for case management consultation rooms, exam rooms, and a computer lab. A common laundry area and gathering spaces are also included.

Providence Supportive Housing partnered with Southcentral Foundation, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, and Catholic Social Services to bring this project to life.

All the Trimmings

Cook Inlet Region Incorporated (CIRI) opened Maple Springs Senior Living in February with a mission “to encourage lifestyle options by providing personalized care and firstclass service.”

The facility centers on a great room reminiscent of grand Alaska lodges, complete with a mammoth stone fireplace and, of course, comfy stuffed chairs. The dining room is spacious and filled with light.

Built on CIRI-owned land near Klatt Road in South Anchorage, the 107,500-square-foot facility features seventy-nine assisted living units and twenty-eight memory care units. In 2024, CIRI plans to open a skilled nursing facility, and there is more land for future expansion.

Activities and outings keep residents engaged and active, and Maple Springs offers many opportunities: an art room, movie theater, ice cream and coffee bistro, puzzle rooms, computer rooms, outdoor walking paths, and functional gardens.

“We offer studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units with kitchenettes in our assisted living and have all studios in our memory care,” says Heather Jacox, community relations and marketing director for Maple Springs. “All of our rooms are private rooms with private bathrooms.”

Bathrooms come with a shower or a Jacuzzi tub, according to the preferences of the tenant.

Sprucing Up Spenard

Cook Inlet Housing Authority’s (CIHA) Ch’bala Corners development is currently moving tenants to its Phase I facilities, which include three buildings: senior housing with nineteen apartments, an eight-plex garden-style building for families and individuals, and a twenty-one unit multifamily building, for a total of forty-eight units of affordable housing.

As of mid-October, thirty-five of those units had been leased, says Sezy Gerow-Hanson, director of public and resident relations at CIHA. Phase II is planned with another thirty-three apartments, she adds.

Ch’bala Corners is one of twentythree CIHA projects funded through Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s Greater Opportunities for Affordable Living (GOAL) program, which provides grants, federal tax credits, and zerointerest federal loans to build rental housing for low- to moderate-income families and seniors.

Ch’bala means “spruce tree” in the Dena’ina Athabascan language, and Ch’bala Corners is just the latest affordable housing project to sprout in the Spenard neighborhood. CIHA also has been busy building affordable housing in Eagle River, Ninilchik, and Chickaloon—but Spenard is the authority’s backyard. Ch’bala Corners is kitty-corner from CIHA headquarters at 36th Avenue and Spenard Road, and CIHA also bought the former Church of Love next door to its offices and renovated the building into The Nave, a community and cultural hub hosting a range of activities, from meetings to art exhibits.

Bringing new life to an old Anchorage neighborhood with somewhat of a rough-and-tumble past, CIHA's housing developments are reshaping Spenard with affordable and attractive housing near shopping, transportation, dining, and entertainment. The housing authority has taken a holistic approach by looking at the entire area and not just an isolated spot where its projects are built.

The foundations being laid now to care for aging Baby Boomers will continue to be useful into the middle of the century. The state’s population projection forecasts a decade-long lull in the growth of the over-65 age group, but after 2045, the oldest Millennials will start turning 65. If retirement is still a thing by that time, today’s thirtysomethings will have plenty of choices where to live.