Alternative Living for the Aging (ALA) is a Los Angeles non-profit that runs two interesting programs that, according to its website, "allow older people to remain independent through their interdependence."
ALA's Cooperative Apartment Communities program places seniors in affordable collective housing in one of five different Los Angeles-area rental apartment complexes run by ALA. The communities have different structures -- in one, residents come together regularly for meals cooked by the community's cook; in another the residents live completely independently --but they share an ethos that has residents relating to one another as an extended family or community.
The second of ALA's programs, the Preinterviewed Housemate Matching Program, matches seniors with potential housemates(senior or younger) who either pay them rent or assist them with services such as shopping, transportation or companionship.
I'm in Dallas, TX and looking for alternative living for my older sister. She is strictly on So. Security, has COPD, is on oxygen all the time and, up until she recently went into a rehab facility, was in a nursing home. She is coming out of rehab, much stronger and more able to care for herself to a great extent, and we (her family) are looking for a way she could avoid a nursing home. Have you any knowledge of facilities similar to yours here in this area? Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Frances Cavagnaro | February 02, 2008 at 06:50 AM