SAN FRANCISCO: A 67 year old is building a Radical Resthomes network so that all those with real housing alternatives can share their experiences, resources and solutions to problems.
“We’re going to run up against some real challenges as we age, get ill and need help,” said Janet Torge.
“If a housing project has figured out how to deal with a housemate who is getting dementia, I want to know what they came up with. We have to help each other if we want to stay in control of our lives.”
Torge says that over time she has finally defined what makes a real “Radical Resthome”.
They are “run and managed by people who live there,” she says. “Residents look after each other, and when help is needed resources come to you, you are not shipped out. And we die in our own beds, not in an institution.”
Torge says that years ago someone asked the urban planner Jane Jacobs where old people should live and she said “everywhere”.
Torge’s thinking has been shaped by Baba Yaga’s House – a group of aging feminists in Paris who designed a vibrant community where they could grow old together…