Fox Hollow

“Staying put”

By Brenda Marks

(New Haven Register)

 

       Gary Bonomo wants more than functionality in a 20-home subdivision he’s building for adults off Mill Street and Route 63 in Naugatuck.  He aims for sex appeal.

       Bonomo, an entrepreneur, is constructing his first project for people age 55 and older with his company, Community Development Investment Fund, LLC.

       Called Fox Hollow, the planned community is part of a growing trend in construction known as aging-in-place or universal design, which offers amenities such as wider doorways to accommodate wheelchairs, no-step entries, lever-handled doors for people with arthritis, and electrical outlets higher on the wall so wheelchair-bound folks can still plug appliances into a socket.

       The goal is to allow people to remain at home as they age. Bonomo, 53, of Southbury, is uniting those handicap-accessible items with such add-ons as a double-sided fireplace, 2,000 square feet of living space on a single floor, and an atrium wing that can house an elderly relative – or enclose a lap pool.

       “We will either be held up as visionaries or taken out of town on a wagon,” Bonomo said of the age-restricted single-family homes, the first in Naugatuck. Bonomo recently broke ground and hopes to complete the project by the end of 2007. The homes will sell in the $400,000 range, he said.

       The Remodelors Council of the National Association of Home Builders reports that the number of builders becoming certified as aging-in-place specialists through the association is on the rise. In 2002, the first year the organization offered the certification, only 53 people were certified. By 2003 the number grew to 175, and the following year 284 people took the certification courses, said Jim Lapides, a spokesman for NAHB. Last year, 294 people were certified, and through May of this year, 268 people have been certified, he said.

       AARP is also focusing on the issue:  AARP Connecticut recently co-sponsored a forum on universal design to raise awareness of the need for housing for people with disabilities and for those who want to age in their own homes.

       With more baby boomers reaching the age 50 milestone, the market will continue to grow for homes that allow people to continue living independently, said Joanne Carroll, spokeswoman for the Home Builders Association of Connecticut Inc.

       “In Connecticut, as of the 2000 census, there were more than 778,000 people age 55 and older,” she said. “By 2030 that projection is 1.2 million people age 55-plus. That’s a big growth market in the state.”

       Aging-in-place homes are designed both for people who are healthy but want to plan ahead in case they become disabled, and for people who are already handicapped and need special amenities.

       Builders and developers are not only addressing the need, Carroll said, they’re getting better at creating homes that are beautiful as well as practical. “You’ve got homes that look ageless, not institutionalized,” she said.

       Gregory Lehman, 44, of Madison, recently earned the aging-in-place certification through NAHB. His company, Adaptive Elements, an offshoot of Summit Building and Development LLC, is specializing in remodeling homes so that they are easier to live in for people with disabilities or elderly homeowners.

       While taking the NAHB courses, Lehman said, he learned a lot about what older adults face as their health declines. For instance, students did exercises such as putting their hands inside a sock while holding a tennis ball to simulate what it is like to open doors with arthritis. “We also wore dark glasses smeared with Vaseline on the lenses, which replicates cataracts. I most definitely got a better appreciation of what older people go through,” he said.

       Other NAHB classes included working with and marketing to older adults, modification issues such as building ramps, using proper anchoring for grab bars, and special adaptations such as installing smoke alarms with strobe lighting for clients with hearing loss.

       “Baby boomers are a big percentage of the population and many people love their homes and want to stay in them,” Lehman said. “They can stay in their colonials another 10 years by adding a master bedroom on the first floor and spend $30,000 or $40,000. In assisted living they would go through that money in no time.” He also does smaller jobs – he recently installed grab bars in a shower for a man who has vertigo, and built a no-threshold shower so a wheelchair or shower chair can be pushed into it.

       The most sought-after remodeling jobs are almost always related to the bathroom or making an entryway handicap accessible, said Lapides of the NAHB. “The problem is that most people, when you approach them, don’t think they need it or are going to,” Lapides said. “They vaguely recognize it as a problem, but not for themselves. (With today’s construction designs) you don’t realize you’re going into a home built for accessibility.”

       As for Bonomo, the builder of the Naugatuck project, which is being constructed on nearly 8 acres, he believes that combining function with fashion is feasible. “It is possible to make aging-in-place a more enjoyable experience,” he said. “We’re marrying the functionality with the sex appeal.”

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