PHOENIX: Bruce Cunningham is leading an effort to create a neighbourhood network for seniors who want to stay in their homes. The group will be registered as a nonprofit corporation, with membership dues, and will line up providers of transportation, home repair, companionship, security and other services to meet their needs at home for as long as possible.
Before turning 80, Bruce Cunningham scouted where he could spend his retirement years – apartments with fully equipped fitness facilities, prepared meals and hotel-style concierges to handle every need.
But none of them felt like home. And so he and his wife, Mary, decided to stay in their beloved two-storey house and tree-lined neighbourhood.
“The more I visited,” Cunningham said, “the more I realised I preferred being home.”
Many neighbours share his desire to age in place, and they are teaming up for a project that could, if successful, enable them to remain in their houses as long as possible. The network would help them to find handymen, landscapers, cooks, drivers and others willing to assist with once-routine tasks – and at a lower cost than living in a managed-care facility…