To: Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal affairs and Housing, Ontario
Build multigenerational Homes.
Dear Steve Clark,
We spend so much money on Special Long Term Care Homes, and Yet the General Public wants to stay in their existing homes as they Age! Why are we not legislating the building of homes that are liveable for more then one generation. Houses are often to expensive to renovate for the elderly. Houses often have steps, small interior doors, more stairs, hard to use bathrooms, etc. Etc.
People will buy or build a home and then when people really want to stay in their home as we age, we can not because of the difficulty of just living in the home without making large expensive changes. All this movement of elders could be prevented if home building plans included adaptable living conditions to allow elders to stay in their home for many more years. Building the house from the design stage up in large numbers would reduce the overall cost and reduce the need for so many expensive Long Term Care Homes that we all want to avoid in the first place!
Why is this important?
Many of us, if not the majority of residents would want to stay in our own homes into our old age. We want to avoid needing to move into Long Term Care Buildings just because our houses do not adapt to some of our specific living needs as we age. If homes were planned from day one to allow seniors to move about easily in our homes as we age, then the number of Long Term Care Homes could be reduced. All the related costs of care for seniors could be reduced! The happiness of Seniors, as we age would maintained. Families could plan so much easier how to continue caring for their loved Elders into the later years of life!