Annual Report to the Community 2010 by Silvera for Seniors

Annual Report to the

Community 2010 www.mcfhousing.com

With luck and good health, we will all grow old. It’s often how we will age and where we will age that concern us. For many in Calgary, those concerns are current. That’s where MCF Housing for Seniors enters the picture. MCF is the leading provider of affordable housing and supportive services for moderate- to low-income seniors in Calgary. As our seniors’ population increases and lives even longer, our work is becoming ever more important and challenging. In 2010, MCF experienced some excellent successes and lessons learned in meeting these challenges. Our pilot project housing seniors with dementia at our Beaverdam facility taught us a great deal about helping a very vulnerable population. The new facility at Willow Park on the Bow showed us how to begin to build senior-focused integrated communities. An integrated community should be a place to live, work, shop, and play, and is an emerging trend in seniors’ housing. Expansion at Willow Park on the Bow opened up another 150 units, helping to increase housing supply for seniors in Calgary. Finally, we also expanded our Shawnessy Lodge facility, with the help of a major new fundraiser, Tango and Tapas. Along with our government funders, our thanks go to Willow Park Wines and Spirits, Benzing Furs, and Metropolitan Grill, who helped us to raise $60,000 for this expansion. The other major feature of 2010 was transition. MCF began the heavy-lifting work of refining our business strategies in order to create a stable platform for the future. Key and emerging issues such as aging in place, ensuring quality of life and increasing cultural competencies needed to be addressed and integrated into our strategic and business plans. This work is ongoing, but we feel we made great progress on all fronts in 2010. In the future, our new strategy is two-fold: to build more units and to expand our services to Calgary seniors. Our goal is to add hundreds of affordable housing units for seniors by 2016. We anticipate a new development at the Jacques site, at the corner of Bow Trail and 26th Street SW. This is the site of the current LRT extension, and will give us yet another excellent opportunity to develop an integrated community. Further expansion is planned at the Bow Valley site, already home to many

“

If we work together, across generations, each one of us can act as a champion for quality of life for seniors.

Message from the Board Chair

Welcome Arlene Adamson, MCF’s new CEO of our facilities. Finally, as the northeast of Calgary is vastly under-served regarding seniors’ housing, our Gilchrist site in Pineridge will be renovated to provide more enhanced care services and expanded, with the potential for private sector partners to develop even more units. Ambitious? We hope so, as the need is great. By 2020, the number of Calgary seniors is projected to be 182,800* – a 74 per cent increase from 2010 numbers. It’s time for all of us to think about the future – and we invite you to support MCF Housing for Seniors as we prepare for it. Sincerely,

This past summer, MCF Housing for Seniors was delighted to welcome our new CEO, Arlene Adamson. After a rigorous search process undertaken by our search firm, Conroy Ross, the Board of Directors is confident that we have the right person, at the right time, in the right role. According to Board Chair Jim Hubbard, “In addition to her extensive experience in the non-profit sector, Arlene has a reputation as a person of integrity, who leads by example and inspires all members of her team at all levels to reach for excellence.” Arlene comes to us from the YWCA of Calgary, where she was most recently the Chief Operating Officer. She has a career spanning 27 years in the non-profit sector in Calgary, the majority at senior and executive roles with agencies as diverse as the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Red Cross. Arlene’s interest in affordable housing started at the YWCA of Calgary, where as part of her job she worked to help women and children facing homelessness and a lack of affordable housing. The transition to MCF Housing for Seniors is a natural progression of her passion to see people thrive and not just survive.

Jim Hubbard Chairman, Board of Directors MCF Housing for Seniors

“Since arriving at MCF, I have been extremely *City of Calgary, 2010

impressed with the calibre and caring nature of our staff,” she says. “It’s clear to me that this is true people organization, and I am excited at the opportunity to work with the Board of Directors and all staff to help the organization move to the next level, especially as our 50th anniversary is approaching in 2012.” Arlene has spent much of her first months on the job visiting all of our facilities and meeting our residents, staff and volunteers. She is a keen listener and has been eager to hear from our residents first-hand how they feel our services can be expanded and improved. “Meeting the needs of an aging population is complex and MCF will need our friends, partners and Calgarians to support our work, both now and in our future,” she adds. “In a very real sense, MCF exists to ensure that our lower income seniors are safely and properly housed, but we also must ensure that they are not forgotten. If we work together, across generations, each one of us can act as a champion for quality of life for seniors. After all, one day we may the ones who need MCF’s services. “I’m extremely proud to be leading MCF Housing for Seniors at such a key time in its history. I know that by working together with all Calgarians, we will be able to achieve great things.”

Putting together the pieces As the “young kid” among her

group of friends, May Neuman had been the one to chauffeur her girlfriends around, which kept her up and active. Then the 81-year-old’s driving skills deteriorated and, as a result, her social network collapsed. After losing her driver’s licence, May became depressed and lonely, and everyone recognized that she was just not doing so well on her own anymore. It took a lot of convincing, but May finally decided to move from Camrose to Calgary to be closer to family. May agreed on a three-month trial at one of MCF Housing for Seniors’ 25 facilities. At Spruce Lodge, May enjoyed independent-style living in a nice apartment overlooking a courtyard.

“ …MCF introduced us to the Memory Care Program at Beaverdam Lodge. It is more suitable, with a more appropriate cueing level, which has made a big difference,” says Todd Neuman, May’s son.

After a couple of months, staff at MCF noted that May was having trouble getting into the routine of the lodge on her own. She didn’t need physical care but, struggling with the early stages of dementia, she had problems with memory loss and confusion and needed extra cueing and reminders. “That’s when the folks at MCF introduced us to the Memory Care Program at Beaverdam Lodge,” says Todd Neuman, May’s son. “It is more suitable, with a more appropriate cueing level, which has made a big difference.” At Beaverdam, she settled in instantly, Todd says, adding: “Although the rooms are significantly smaller than at Spruce, Beaverdam feels more like a big house, which means that she doesn’t view her bedroom as

her only living space. Now she barely spends any time in her room awake — she gets dressed and gets out, spending the day doing activities that are part of the program or sitting and watching TV in the ‘living room’ area of her wing.” While May’s mental acuity has deteriorated further, she is happy overall, and her depression scale assessments have improved since moving to Beaverdam Lodge. “Here they take care of me; I don’t lack anything,” says May. Those comments mean a lot to Ellie Bromley, facility manager at Beaverdam, who adds, “We are so proud of our memory care program because it allows seniors to retain their independence while offering support where required on an individual basis.” “It’s been a very big transition, and it’s comforting to know that my mom is in a place where she can stay until something changes,” says Todd, who notes that staff and residents at the lodge feel like one big family. “She’s not at risk of being left behind. She’s comfortable, she’s content where she is, and I don’t think you could ask for more.” Photo: May Neuman with her son, Todd and Ellie Bromley, Manager of Beaverdam Lodge.

297,000 The number of baby boomers currently living in Calgary. (City of Calgary, 2009)

Traditional

Roast Beef Dinner! MCF

residents

prefer

The work we do...

while a traditional

1,023,325 The number of meals MCF serves annually.

Utilities - 9%

Province of Alberta - 14%

10000000

Comparative Summary

Depreciation - 8% 5000000

City of Calgary - 7%

Mortgage Interest - 1%

Other Income - 6%

Administrative - 12%

Rent - 73%

Operating - 63%

2010 Total Revenue $

2009 Total Expenses $

Provincially Owned, MCF Managed

2010 Expenses

3000000

2010 Revenue

Taxes & Land Leases - 6%

2500000

Amortization - 0%

2000000

Administration - 21%

1500000

Capital Maintenance - 13%

1000000

Maintenance - 15% Other - 20%

Operating - 18%

Rent- 80%

Utilities - 27%

Comparative Summary

500000 0

2010 Total Revenue $

2009 Total Expenses $

that continues to rise. (Stats Canada, 2010)

Maintenance - 7%

visible minorities in 2006, a number

15000000

17 The percentage of seniors who were