Unique Housing Option For Seniors

As your parents age, your options begin to shrink. You want to allow them to age in place, but that's not always a possibility, especially if they are ill and fragile. Senior living facilities seem cold and lifeless to you, and your parents don't need that level of care, just someone to check on them every day.

There's a new senior living option available, if you live in your own home and have a fairly large yard. It's an ECHO unit. ECHO stands for Elder Cottage Housing Opportunities, and it's a truly radical concept: a small prefabricated cottage that you can move into your yard or a nearby lot, allowing your parent or parents to live in a temporary home nearby instead of senior housing. They maintain their privacy and as much of their independence as possible, and you have the peace of mind of knowing they are well cared for.


A significant bonus for this type of senior housing is that your children and your parents will be able to spend much more time together; your parents may even be able to provide some childcare services, freeing you to do a little more than you otherwise would be able to do. In a way, it's the ideal senior living, close to family, close to care, yet still maintaining an independent identity.

What ECHOs Look Like

An ECHO looks like a miniature house, not like the mobile homes they are based on. They are typically from 500-1000 square feet in size, and laid out as a studio or one bedroom home. ECHOs require plumbing and electricity hookups, but otherwise they are self-contained little homes. Most ECHOs are equipped with stairs, and need to have ramps installed to accommodate the senior living lifestyle.

On the outside, an ECHO is rather plain. It's a simple miniature ranch-style house with one peak to the roof and aluminum siding walls. It is not a beautiful house, but it is a functional one that does not look bad. Because one of the main arguments against ECHO senior housing is that they do not blend well with the neighborhood, there is a movement to create custom ECHO units that blend perfectly with their surroundings, and that may lead to some charming doll-house style developments in the area of senior housing.

For now, though, there is some serious resistance to senior housing ECHOs from neighborhood groups. Because they are a prefabricated home, ECHO units often get lumped into the category of trailers, rather than being treated as senior housing. Some zoning codes do allow these units to be set up for people who are 55 years old or older, but those who desire an ECHO unit for senior living will have to research their own locality's ordinances to be certain.

Positive and Negative Points for ECHO Units

ECHO units are among the best possible choices for senior housing for those older people who are still semi-independent and don't need intensive medical assistance on a daily basis. When living in an ECHO unit, seniors are close to the people who love them the most and who are most able to take care of them: their families. Since they don't live in someone else's house, they are able to maintain a high level of independence with this senior living choice. Besides this, an ECHO unit is relatively cheap, in some cases less than $30K for a fully installed cottage with all necessary mobility accessories.

However, there are a few negatives for this type of senior housing. Some seniors prefer not to live so close to their families, fearing that closeness will breed stress instead of love. Others prefer senior living options that bring them close to other seniors, making a retirement community a better option. Possibly the most important negative, however, is the problem with zoning restrictions. If you live in the country, zoning is unlikely to be a problem, but often even temporary buildings like an ECHO are ruled out by zoning laws. You may also be able to get assistance from your local HUD office with fighting the zoning and even getting a loan for an ECHO.

One thing caregivers and seniors can do is take their objections to problematic zoning laws to the local zoning board. Because ECHOs are so new, it's possible the zoning laws have not taken into consideration these new forms of senior living, and many communities have been compassionate enough to remove their restrictions for ECHO-style housing in cases where the resident is over the age of 55. In some other cases, modifying the appearance of the ECHO may make the local community more amenable to this senior housing option.

The Future of ECHO Units

ECHOs are very new options for senior living, so the future right now is uncertain. However, it's certain that they are here to stay, and that they will provide a viable option for senior housing.

But there's more to it than just the desires of the seniors. An ECHO unit provides a viable, cost-effective, and caring senior living option for older people who are in ill health besides remaining in the hospital or being warehoused in a nursing home. Thus far, not much work has been done on this in the United States, but in Britain where the medical crunch is reaching crisis proportions, ECHOs have been touted as a senior housing option through which hospitals can release patients early, saving hundreds of dollars daily in medical costs as well as freeing up beds for more acutely ill patients and often ensuring a more beneficial medical outcome for the patient as well.

Further exploration of ECHOs as senior living options will doubtless help bring to light new and better ways to use them. For now, caring families can be assured that an ECHO is a fantastic senior housing option for their beloved elders.

By: Tony Seruga, Yolanda Seruga and Yolanda Bishop

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Tony Seruga, Yolanda Seruga and Yolanda Bishop of www.maverickrei.com specialize in commercial and investment real estate. As of May, 2006, they and their partners are managing over $600 million dollars worth of new projects.

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