Retirees : Pros, Cons of Adults-Only Life Styles

Jeff Rice, 82, of Leisure World, Laguna Hills, has lived in that retirement community for 18 years. He wouldn’t live anywhere else, he says.

“I have everything I need or want right here,” Rice said while he sold candy for a Kiwanis Club project outside a supermarket.

“With all the activities, I never get tired of things,” he declared. Not only are there clubs of every description, but a community bus system takes Rice to the doctor, movies or market.

Rice’s enthusiastic comments raise an important issue. Are retirement communities happy paradises or, as they have been called, “elephant graveyards,” where the elderly are shunted off to live out their remaining years?

Matter of Choice

To find some answers, gerontology experts, retirement community residents and real estate authorities were interviewed for this article, in addition to a review of current literature on the subject.

The general conclusion was that living in an adult retirement community is a matter of personal choices.

“For those who need it, it serves a worthwhile purpose,” Margaret Huang, Saddleback College gerontology instructor, said. “For them, it is an ideal way of life.”

For others, it may turn into an all too-sequestered world.

“There is no one single solution to the housing problem for the older adult,” Karen Rook, UC Irvine professor of social ecology, said.

Not Cut Off From Society

“We may have gone too far in criticizing these communities. Although people may elect to live in one, it is simply not the case that they are cut off from the rest of society. They still have frequent contact with their children, grandchildren and friends. Volunteer participation also keeps many busy.”

It is estimated that the nation now has about 2,400 adults-only communities, from the 45,000 population in Sun City, Ariz., to 22,000 residents in Leisure World, to only 20 units in a Sarasota, Fla., mobile-home park.

Notable retirement communities in Southern California include the Leisure Villages in Camarillo and Vista, Hemet’s Sun City, Leisure World, the Landmark developments in La Mirada and Huntington Beach; Casta del Sol in Mission Viejo, and portions of Rancho Bernardo and Lake San Marcos. Their popularity is tied to climate and life style.

Studies found that most of the residents are white, conservative, upper middle-class--even wealthy. They also are healthier and better educated that their counterparts elsewhere.

Few minorities are found among the homeowners because most minorities cannot afford the costs, nor do they feel comfortable in an alien atmosphere.

The marketing department of Sun City said it was also difficult to lure the foreign born to Arizona “apparently because they still maintain the custom of having old people remain with their families.”

What is it that attracts retirees to such communities? A good reason is that developers have studied the market and made the environment as appealing as possible with swimming pools, craft shops, golf courses, libraries, meeting rooms and other amenities.

For example, the Leisure Village clubhouse at Vista would be the envy of any country club.

Increased Property Values

“Retirement communities also seem to offer the greatest possibility for an increase in property values,” according to authors Leland F. and Lee Morrison Cooley (“How to Avoid the Retirement Trap”). A check with the resales office at Leisure World, Laguna Hills, disclosed that cooperative apartments that sold for $10,000 in 1967, now go for $40,000 or more; condos that were $20,000 in 1968, are now $75,000 to $80,000. Luxury villas are as high as $350,000.

However, the single most important feature that the elderly seem to insist on is security. Residents who move from major metropolitan areas are almost paranoid about security. Most retirement communities are either gate guarded, maintain a roving patrol, or both.

Viola Hoffman of Leisure World, originally from Illinois, says she feels protected and is able to go anywhere in the community without fear. Jack Lowell of Casta del Sol, Mission Viejo, who travels widely in his motor home, says he can leave for weeks without worrying about a break-in or vandalism in his house. “That’s a big plus in my book,” he said.

Another big plus is that after a lifetime of family and household chores, retirees have chucked those burdens. For their monthly homeowner fee, the management takes care of the gardening, pool maintenance, guard service, trash collection and insurance.

‘We Pay a Price’

Meanwhile, residents are free to pursue new interests and make new friends. Many adult-community residents are still gainfully employed. “After all,” one longtime engineer asked, “how much golf can I play?”

Originally, gerontologists thought these projects made them too sterile and isolated from the real world. According to Dr. Robert N. Butler’s book, “Why Survive? Being Old in America,” “The tendency of the old to be kept in . . . retirement communities contributes to the attitude of out of sight, out of mind. We pay a price for these attitudes.

“What are the children, youth and the middle-aged to do for role models if they have no contact with the old? They lose the opportunity to learn by word and deed the nature of the entire life experience, of survival to old age. They lose their sense of ancestry, history and roots, and so lose a valuable understanding of themselves.”

Rook of UC Irvine and Peggy Weatherspoon, director of Orange County’s Area Agency on Aging, dispute this. Weatherspoon termed adult retirement communities “a wonderful option” for living. Rook said that recent studies have indicated that many retirees are deeply involved with their communities as volunteers.

“The only difference is now that they don’t have to compete with younger people,” Rook said.

Handling Own Affairs

Another advantage of adult communities is the opportunity for grass-roots, participatory democracy. Residents are encouraged, even mandated, to handle their own affairs--and they do.

If it all sounds so idyllic, what are the drawbacks?

For one, by moving into such a project, a homeowner forgoes freedom of choice. He can no longer paint his home any color he chooses, no longer add a patio cover without architectural approval; he must keep his grandchildren away from most of the recreational facilities because of the liability, and on and on.

His life is ordered by a set of strict rules, known as C. C. & R’s (conditions, covenants and restrictions).

Others claim that far too much emphasis is placed on self-gratification. “They’re just a bunch of over-age kids looking for good times,” one critic said. “It’s like too much whipped cream on the cake.”

Newsweek, in a study last May, noted an increase in alcoholism and depression among the elderly because of isolation and loneliness. Huang said it has been reported to her that alcoholism is a problem at some retirement projects.

Rook said, “This may be true, but alcoholism, depression, and even suicide are not confined to retirement communities. The incidence of such ills is generally higher among the elderly than in other segments of the population.”

Age Discrimination

Another curious fact is that older people themselves practice age discrimination. Rook stated that another study indicated that old people prefer not to associate with those older than themselves because they see in them what they will eventually become.

Robert Fulton of the University of Minnesota has declared, “The retirement city movement is another strategy (of society) to cope with death. It, in fact, segregates and isolates those most likely to die, allowing us to avoid (facing the fact) of death almost entirely.”

For the average retiree, his adult community may well be the last place he will live.

Butler calls this “too global a condemnation. Retirement communities do serve as a useful option to those who prefer them. This conviction . . . should not be used to subvert the individual decision of those older persons who choose retirement community living.”

No doubt that as we all age (11% of our population is over 65. Within 45 years, 21% of all Americans will pass the age of 65), retirement communities will become more and more popular. While some retirees will opt for nursing homes of necessity, and others will continue to live with adult children, at least 75% will remain in an independent-living situation, according to Dr. T. Franklin Williams, director of the National Institute of Aging.