Housing in Calgary is evolving to meet needs
Silvera for Seniors Westview interior.
For more than 55 years, Silvera for Seniors has provided safe, affordable seniors housing for lower-income Calgary seniors from all walks of life. Calgary’s largest non-faith based provider of housing and services for seniors, and Alberta’s second largest, Silvera’s 25 communities in 18 neighbourhoods throughout all four quadrants of the city currently house 1,450 independent residents. These communities offer independent living with a range of support options, from basic to enhanced support for lower income seniors who can live independently and are looking to spend no more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.
With an aging population and the demand for affordable seniors housing and related services increasing, Arlene Adamson, chief executive officer of Silvera for Seniors, believes that it is important to provide innovative solutions to help change the conversation surrounding seniors and affordable housing. “Seniors are also developing more complex health and service support needs. A growing number are living on low and moderate incomes. Silvera programs and supports active aging and aligns with strategic partners to support healthy aging,” says Adamson.
To accommodate the everchanging needs of today’s seniors, Silvera offers a wide variety of options for independent senior adults. These options include Independent Living arrangements that feature self-contained apartments and townhomes; Supportive Living options featuring congregate living communities with daily dining services, weekly housekeeping and active aging programs; and Early Stage Memory Care for low-income seniors at one of their Supportive Living communities. “We need to support seniors in their homes,” says Adamson. “That’s with Silvera in our case, which plays a key role to ensure seniors have the right supports, a sense of community and belonging, active aging programs and friendships.” Adamson acknowledges changes are needed to the traditional or historical approaches to seniors housing services and care to better accommodate for changing demands.
“There is a great opportunity to find synergies between health initiatives and buildings and seniors housing initiatives and supports,” says Adamson. “Silvera is eager to collaborate with city and provincial governments to innovate more cost effective and impactful solutions.” Adamson suggests that such solutions could be to divert provincial health-care dollars from expensive hospitals and high-care facilities to lower-cost, supportive living communities, or making efficient use of existing government owned, Silvera-operated communities by leveraging the capital, so Silvera can reinvest in capital development in Calgary. Silvera’s government mandate to provide high-quality homes and services primarily to seniors of modest means has seen the company expand its market and reposition the Silvera for Seniors brand to adopt mixed-market, mixed-rent approaches in certain communities.
For Silvera for Seniors to be the best place to live for residents, Adamson knows that from the top down, everyone at Silvera must be caring, driven and positive. “We are purpose-driven; we help people live their best lives. We are resident-centred; we celebrate the uniqueness and independence of each resident. And, we are values-based: we value accountability, honesty, relationships and innovation.” It is shaping up to be an exciting year for Silvera for Seniors as renovations are currently underway in some existing buildings to create fresh, dynamic communities with more active spaces and to support resident choice and greater independence.
A new provincial government Supportive Living community is also under construction on Silvera’s Gilchrist Campus in Calgary’s northeast, which Silvera will operate when it opens in 2021, as well as plans to construct a new Independent Living community on its Glamorgan Campus in southwest Calgary. “We want to create environments that fit in and reflect neighbourhoods and foster interconnection of residents,” explains Adamson. Silvera for Seniors continues to be a standard-bearer for seniors housing and is committed to working with all levels of government on innovative solutions for cost effecting housing and support services.
“We are innovating with government, strategic partners, donors, volunteers and employees to find synergies and new approaches — to make the most of what we have and can create together for the benefit of the most senior citizens of this great city and province.”
~ Article originally published in the Calgary Herald (January 27, 2020 edition)
