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Assisted living home opens in Potomac

Asheir Homes Assisted Living will open a second location in Potomac, Md. this month. Run by a nurse practitioner, the new eight-bed, two-level home has an elevator and all private rooms with private bathrooms.

The home, situated on two acres of land, will specialize in residents with Parkinson’s disease and mobility and memory issues.

A small therapy gym will help residents with strength and gait training. Memory care residents will be able to order snacks and drinks from an onsite coffee shop.

The company’s first home, Ashier Manor, is in Germantown, Md.

For more information, see http://www.asheirmanor.com or call (301) 250-6660.

New life for old library site

Since a new library opened in Silver Spring, Md., three years ago, the old one, built in 1957, has been the subject of development debate. Should it be repurposed as a child-care center, or should senior housing be built on the site?

This winter, the debate ended with the decision to do both. As part of the arrangement, Global LifeSci Development Corporation agreed to provide Victory Housing — which develops housing for the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. — with a site for the construction of a senior housing project. It will be transit-accessible, and is projected to include 110 units, some at market rate but most priced to be affordable.

Both Victory Housing and the Global LifeSci Development Corporation had submitted proposals to Montgomery County for the reuse of the old library site.

The child care center, which will serve 120 mostly low-income children, is projected to open by the end of 2020. Victory Housing’s senior housing is expected to open in 2021.

“I am very pleased that we have reached an arrangement that can boost both child care and senior housing,” said Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett in announcing the decision. “County families need more child care choices, and our growing senior population deserves more options.”

Two all-new Sunrise communities debut in Montgomery County

The newest Sunrise community, Sunrise of Chevy Chase, opened last month. The community, actually located in Silver Spring, Md., near Chevy Chase, offers assisted living and memory care.

The building includes nine floor plans, ranging from 518-square-foot assisted living and memory care units to a 929-square-foot two-bedroom two-bathroom assisted living apartment.

An in-house chef prepares three meals a day. Sunrise offers many activities, including art, yoga and fitness classes, as well as book groups, current events discussions and more. Pets are also welcome.

Another nearby Sunrise community — Sunrise of Bethesda, Md. — has also just opened.

In February, Sunrise Senior Living, which operates more than 300 senior communities throughout the country, earned the highest in overall satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2018 Senior Living Satisfaction study. It achieved the highest score in five out of the six study factors.

The study indicates the most important factor to assisted living and independent living consumers is caregiver/staff, of which Sunrise ranked highest among its peers, as well as senior services/activities; setup/orientation; rooms/building/grounds; and food/beverage.

For more information about the Chevy Chase site, see http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/communities/sunrise-of-chevy-chase/overview.aspx or call (240) 215-4114. For Bethesda, call (301) 657-6880.

Tenants rights videos

The D.C. Office of Tenant Advocate’s annual Tenant Summit is an annual day-long forum that brings together tenants, tenant associations, housing attorneys and advocates, policy experts, community leaders and District officials to discuss matters of concern to the District’s tenant community.

The 10th annual summit was held last September, and videos from the summit, covering rent control, leases, tenant rights, housing for veterans, and other topics, are now available online. They can be viewed at https://ota.dc.gov/page/10th-annual-tenant-summit.

D.C. ranked high for elder abuse protection

The District of Columbia came in second in a national ranking of jurisdictions for protecting residents from elder abuse. Nevada was rated as number one and Arizona as number three. Virginia came in 29th and Maryland 34th in a study by financial website WalletHub.

The study found that Washington, D.C. has the second-highest total expenditure on elder abuse prevention, and has the most certified volunteer ombudsmen (per 100,000 residents aged 65 and older) who help ensure long-term care quality. The District was tied for third place for highest nursing home quality.

For more details on the study, see https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-elder-abuse-protection/28754.

Many seniors still paying mortgages

About 44 percent of 60- to 70-year-olds are still paying a mortgage, according to a 2017 survey by mortgage company American Financing.

According to the findings, 32 percent of those predict that it will take them more than eight years to pay their mortgage off, and an additional 17 percent say that they will possibly never pay it off.

“Part of the American dream, and homeownership, is the expectation that after years of hard work, you can retire with financial security. But the unfortunate reality for many of today’s baby boomers is that their debt burden remains high,” said Carrie Niess, business analyst at American Financing.

“As concerning as this is, there are still many untapped options, such as refinancing and reverse mortgages, which a lot of folks could benefit from.”

Additional survey highlights include:

• A majority (64 percent) of 60- to 70-year-old homeowners plan to remain in their current home, with 62 percent of these individuals planning to leave the home to their children/estate.
• Fifty-eight percent have refinanced their loan at some point, and 72 percent of these individuals did so in order to lower their mortgage rate.
• 19 percent of 60- to 70-year-olds do not know what a reverse mortgage is, while 15 percent would be open to considering one.
• Seventy-one percent of 60- to 70-year-olds would be likely to make home renovations rather than move in the event that a health issue affected their mobility and/or comfort at home.

More details and key findings from the study can be found in American Financing’s full report, available at http://bit.ly/SeniorMortgages.