THINKING OUTSIDE THE SENIORS' HOUSING BOX
Visionary wants to get older people out of institutional residences and into shared homes
Communal living may be making a comeback — more than 50 years after I’d had enough of it.
Flashback to my life fresh out of university: Useless B. A. in English Lit, low-paying (even by 1970s standards) office job, low-rent, funky old house shared with six roomies I’d known from Mcgill University.
The friends came and went — more than 50 over five years. By then, I lucked into a job in journalism and decided I could afford my own pad.
Fast-forward to life long after university: Nice pension, townhouse that needs work while I hang out at my partner’s pad.
Times change. And so does housing, a subject I’m being schooled on by old friend Janet Torge. Like me, Torge is in her mid-70s. Unlike me, she is busy all the time.
A native of Ohio who emigrated to Canada in 1969, Torge is a dynamo. She is particularly proud of co-founding, along with two other women, this country’s first rape relief centre in 1972.
She has also been a radio host and is now a documentary film producer. Torge also has a big idea — and she is bringing it to fruition. Her plan: Communal living for seniors who can’t afford luxury residences.
Torge calls her project (in partnership with real estate broker Louise Quinn) Radical Resthomes. It has been coming together in Montreal for nine years.
And the project has resonance for innovative senior living “a mari usque ad mare” — Canada’s motto, meaning “from sea to sea.” At least I hope so.
“The idea,” Torge says, “is to get seniors out of residences and in small groups in an affordable co-living situation. That’s the main thing: affordability. They won’t take all your life savings away.”
Torge envisions communal living arrangements where residents help one another and support each other as they age. She describes it as a “cosy, non-institutionalized neighbourhood home” where people live together.
The idea evolved from a series of about 25 workshops Torge conducted over the past seven years. The question launching the workshops was “OK, you don’t want to move into a seniors’ residence. Where do you want to live?”
Various concepts were kicked around. What evolved, Torge says, was “houses with purpose.” Compatible people with common interests would share accommodation. “Not seniors’ bodies put into a building,” Torge said.
Of course, that bleak description does not apply to every seniors’ residence in Canada. But the quality varies widely, as does affordability.
Torge admits she has had difficulty getting her project off the ground. In seeking government support, she encountered widely differing definitions of affordability.
Planning and funding tend toward highrise development. Torge’s plan is for small communal living in cosy houses, ideally buildings that had housed large families.
“I have an idea that people want,” she says. “What I don’t have is what government housing people want to do.”
The houses she plans would have individual bedrooms and a guest room for visiting friends or relatives. One challenge is the number of bathrooms. Torge checked out an ideal eight-bedroom residence. But it had five bathrooms, which means some sharing.
“The people we’re going for need affordable housing,” Torge says. “They’re not going to get everything they want. If we’re doing affordable housing, there have to be some compromises.”
Torge’s mission is to find a graceful way to age for people who can’t afford senior luxury. Her estimated dollar figure, per resident, would be $1,100 per month, which would include everything — heating, TV, internet — but not food.
That’s an affordable price in Montreal. Would Torge’s concept fly in other Canadian cities? Well, let’s see how the debut works in Montreal.
If it does.
The pandemic has put Torge’s project in limbo for two years. But she has done a research report on senior-living projects in Australia, Sweden, Britain, France, Canada and the U.S.
“It will be happening,” she says. “I just don’t know when.”