A home isn’t just something you buy; it’s something you build. We don’t mean that you have to craft a house with your hands, but the process of turning a set of walls and pipes and wires into a true home is a project that takes time: indeed, it even begins to represent time, becoming saturated in memories.
Nancy looked around the dinner table and smiled. Seeing her two young boys, husband, and mother all sitting together, chatting about their days, made her heart warm with gratitude. It had been a year since she’d invited her mom Paula to come live with them—a proposition that had initially caused some stress for her and her husband as they tried to figure out how to swing it financially, although Paula had enough savings to help pitch in, including a few renovations and extra safety features for the bathroom.
These days, it’s natural for people to think about planning for their future long-term care when they’re still young. Whether it’s building a healthy retirement fund, getting a custom life insurance plan, or budgeting tightly over time, there’s a lot more education out there focused on preparing for healthcare costs well into old age. But previous generations haven’t necessarily grown up thinking about insurance or fall-back plans—even just 30 years ago, planning for your financial future wasn’t necessarily common.
In a story that’s sadly all too familiar, Earl goes to his local soup kitchen to eat a warm meal and drink some tea each day at 11am sharp. With gratitude, he tucks into a freshly-cooked dish, a temporary relief from his worries. The rest of his day is often spent searching for a safe place to sleep: there are many others without a place to go and not always enough room for everyone. Earl is one of the many valuable human beings part of the steadily growing aging homeless population in San Francisco.
Most of us are familiar with the boomerang generation—kids in their 20s and 30s moving back home with their parents due to rising housing costs and limited jobs. Especially in attractive, urban cities like San Francisco, many people—both young and old alike—are being priced-out. And now, with life expectancy increasing, and many people currently living into their nineties and beyond, a reverse trend is happening: aging parents are moving back in with their adult children. Older adults are becoming the new boomerang generation—and, for many families, the trend makes wonderful sense.
According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe once rapidly expanded outwards, but at some point will start “crunching” together again—and returning to the center. On a much smaller scale, we’ve seen a similar phenomenon when it comes to the living situations of older adults in America. People spend their youth in apartments in the city, then expand to houses in the suburbs, until, after retirement, they return to city apartments and condos. With 40% of people aged 50-64 planning to move in the next five years, we might see San Francisco’s own version of the Big Crunch soon—but it could be a good thing.
As cliché as it may seem, the San Francisco experience can best be summed up in the Golden Gate Bridge: where the enduring beauty of nature meets the human creative genius. The Bay Area is home to a vibrant community of older adults who enjoy a seemingly unending array of activities that encompass both those ideas—from great museums and amazing restaurants to scenic hiking spots, ocean vistas, and even birdwatching. But, while the city boasts numerous resources and services directed at helping seniors and their families, it’s also infamous for its high cost of living.
The average house price in San Francisco is a whopping $1.3 million. Great for those selling, but not so great for the area’s aging population who are trying to live affordably—a number that is growing. In California alone, the number of older adults has been rising steadily for years now—they currently account for approximately 11.4% of the state’s total population. And as California’s aging population continues to increase, more older adults find themselves seeking affordable housing; having enough money to live comfortably during their retirement is a concern for nearly three-quarters of older adults in the middle-income bracket.
I was very young when my grandfather began to reach the end of his life, but I could see how those really close to him began to take out and pore over old things he had: honors he had received in the war, a touching letter written by his colleagues about his work as a politician—these are the kinds of tokens that add narrative detail to your loved one’s life. During such an emotionally dense period, it can also feel paradoxical to find yourself facing a seemingly unending list of clinical and emotionless paperwork to take care of in regard to your loved one’s health. Although it can be difficult, maintaining an organized online database of end-of-life documents is vital to ensure that your loved one’s medical preferences and funeral wishes are upheld and their finances are kept in order.
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