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John Huskey has a different twist on seniors and affordable housing. He’s giving it a theme—and not just to attract residents but to drive resident interaction and engagement. His theory, at least in the case of senior residents, is that being an essential part of a group is vital, answering a desire to feel needed and inspiring mental stimulation and creativity. The venture, which began with education-oriented and then arts-themed offerings in a few focused properties, now provides some degree of programming in all of Meta Housing Corp.’s Los Angeles-area properties. And that is no small undertaking, considering the portfolio now consists of 27 seniors apartment assets, 16 family-oriented affordable housing complexes and eight that it classifies as rehab projects, plus its recently opened The Metro @ Hollywood mixed-use complex. Another 14 properties are under construction, and Huskey has his sights set on expanding into select locations around the country.
Huskey, who has been developing housing units since 1969, founded Meta Housing Corp. in the early 1990s and opened his third arts community, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, in North Hollywood in January with a new twist: a professional on-site theater. He credits Tim Carpenter, founder & executive director of non-profit seniors activity provider EngAGE, for identifying the need to encourage interaction among seniors housing residents to improve their quality of life rather than simply providing the high-quality environments on which Huskey’s company and its predecessors have focused. Research provided by the University of Southern California at the request of financier Century Housing Corp. confirmed that providing such interaction increases residents’ health, longevity and happiness, he said.
The specialized seniors housing properties target a mix of professionals with a “strong desire to share and teach”—the first to be recruited to a new property in order to establish a base—and those who have an avocational devotion to the applied and performing arts and who “want to be taught.” Both groups—and those who fall in between—take their art seriously, whether painting, singing in a choir or joining together to write a screenplay and produce a movie. EngAGE provides arts and wellness classes, computer training and even a Senior Olympics.
The properties’ popularity is paying off for Meta Housing. Over time, Huskey noted, they see about a 35 percent greater return due to reduced turnover. And even if someone does leave, their replacement is quickly caught up by the enthusiasm of the longer-term residents.
The concept has also caught on with municipalities. Nine years ago, for instance, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency asked Meta Housing to apply it to family-oriented housing, as well. The result: At the Pico/Gramercy Apartments, a 71-unit affordable and mixed-income property completed in 2007, two licensed teachers offer a variety of classes in a standalone building on the property. And the venture has expanded beyond the properties themselves. At other properties, residents have successfully partnered with a high school and the University of California at Los Angeles school of architecture.
As Huskey seeks to expand the concept to other geographic areas, he looks for communities that already have some sort of arts orientation. That coupled with the dramatic changes seniors housing has undergone in recent years encourages success. “The change in how one sees old people I believe is the critical thing for the cities as it was for us,” he noted. “The level of talent and wisdom incorporated in residents of these projects is absolutely incredible. And by creating a critical mass and concentrating them and giving enough of the facility that they can use (their abilities), we hope to have a great deal of wonderful work come out of this.”
Learn more about Meta Housing’s program, including details on the Burbank arts project and two podcasts incorporating the observations of John Huskey himself, through the special feature “Living with Art” on www.cpexecutive.com. Suzann D. Silverman is editorial director of Commercial Property Executive.
