Assisted-living centre will cater to Chinese seniors
American developer of project in Seattle suburb says a similar private facility makes sense for Vancouver
The first private seniors’ community specifically for Chinese-Americans in the Pacific Northwest is breaking ground next week, and the concept may soon be coming to the Lower Mainland.
Aegis Living, an assisted-living provider based in Redmond, Wash., is building the $50-million, 110-unit Aegis Gardens project on three hectares of lakefront land in the Seattle suburb of Newcastle. It is being marketed specifically to ethnic Chinese seniors.
Company founder and CEO Dwayne Clark said the first community of this kind was built in the Northern California city of Fremont in 2001.
He said it demonstrated there is a vastly underserved market for retirement and assisted-living housing within the Chinese-American community, contrary to the perception that extended Chinese families prefer to remain under one roof.
“Everybody said, ‘This will never work because Chinese people don’t put their elderly in a community-living situation,” Clark explained. “‘They’ll never stand for this, and it will never be successful.’
“Aegis Gardens in Fremont was the first private all-Chinese retirement community in the (U.S.), and it has been the most successful property we’ve had.”
Given Metro Vancouver’s large Chinese demographic, Clark said Aegis has been looking at importing its model to the Lower Mainland.
“I know Vancouver very, very well,” he said, adding that he spends his summers north of the border. “Vancouver is on our radar screen to expand this concept. But we have so much on our plate right now that we haven’t aggressively gone after it. We will eventually, just because of the vast numbers of Chinese residents in the market. It just makes sense.”
The demand for Chinese-specific seniors care is not a surprise to local providers, the majority of which are either publicly funded non-profits or associated with various religious organizations.
One of the biggest players in the field is immigrant services provider SUCCESS, which operates both the Simon K.Y. Lee Seniors Care Home/Harmony House Assisted Living in Chinatown and the Austin Harris Residence in Richmond.
SUCCESS CEO Queenie Choo said Austin Harris usually has a waiting list of two to three years, while those hoping to get into the Lee Seniors Care Home may have to wait up to four years. Choo said the market is certainly big enough to accommodate privately operated care providers, adding that similar concepts already exist in Alberta and Ontario, although not necessarily focused on the Chinese community.
She noted that a significant number of Chinese-Canadian seniors do not have the ability to pay for private facilities, which makes government support for public projects (like those run by SUCCESS) more crucial as the local population ages.
“As long as residents can pay, they will have access to facilities and services,” Choo said. “But when you are thinking about the services, there are seniors who cannot afford to pay. Then what?”
Choo has first-hand experience with the importance of ethnic-specific seniors care.
She said her mother, who is in her 80s and lives in Edmonton, lost 20 pounds during a three-month hospital stay while waiting for placement in a care home.
“She can’t communicate with the caregivers,” Choo said, noting the language gap. “She could only use sign language or point to pictures if she needs to go to the bathroom, or if she’s hungry or in pain. She was given sandwiches, which she didn’t like. She couldn’t eat it, and she was emaciated, depressed, and isolated. I finally said, you’ve got to admit her to the Edmonton Chinatown Care Centre, otherwise she’ll die.
“Many seniors, they tend to revert back to their mother tongue. They can only feel familiarity with their language, their culture, the festivities, the food, as well as their way of interacting with people,” Choo said.
“I find that it is very important that we look at being culturally sensitive … so their quality of life is not compromised.”
Clark points out that the Aegis Gardens project in Newcastle will be more than just a seniors facility — it will have a preschool, ESL classes, an amphitheatre for cultural events, a spa and family dining areas available to the public, not just residents.
“We didn’t want this to be just a retirement home,” Clark said. “We wanted this to be a Chinese cultural centre for the Pacific Northwest.
“What we found when we talk to Chinese people … is that they said they want a place where they can hold weddings, to take families, to have community outings. We are building this property not only to house the elderly, but to be the epicentre of Chinese culture in the Pacific Northwest.”
Depending on the size of the unit, monthly fees at Aegis start at $3,500, not including registration fees and other care packages. The facility is set to open in 2017.