GAINESVILLE, Fla. — “Build it and they will stay” would be wise policy with today’s growing number of elderly and disabled people who want to remain in their own homes, a new University of Florida study finds.
By planning ahead, homes built now with features that meet the needs of people who have difficulty getting around will prevent more costly retrofitting in the future and perhaps avoid the trauma of moving to a retirement home, said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research and the study’s lead author.
“With the aging of the baby boomers, it’s pretty clear that the number of people who absolutely need these features to continue living in their own homes will rise substantially over the next several decades,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are relatively few single-family houses that will be able to accommodate them.”