{"id":25180,"date":"2020-07-31T05:22:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T12:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=25180"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:33:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:33:29","slug":"changemakers-series-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/changemakers-series-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Changemakers Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doing things differently is part of what separates Changemakers<\/a> from the pack. At Priya Living<\/a>, Founder Arun Paul fully lives up to that expectation. He\u2019s built Indian-inspired independent living communities that bring together not just older adults but people of all ages, races and religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the young people would come in, we started hearing those comments like, \u2018This place, we love it. Could we live here if we wanted to?\u2019 We said, \u2018We have vacant units, and we need to fill them. Yes, sure. Why not?\u2019\u201d said Paul.\"\"<\/p>\n

Priya Living now has three communities in California with a fourth on the way. They\u2019ve instituted an a la carte model for services, where residents can use their smartphones to request food, care, transportation and other necessities.<\/p>\n

This willingness to try new approaches has also helped them adapt safely to the pandemic. They were taking steps in the first week of March to prevent the spread of infection, and so far no one in their communities has contracted the virus.<\/p>\n

In this excerpt from his Changemakers interview<\/a> with Senior Housing News, Paul describes how COVID-19 affected their business and how they\u2019ve responded to keep residents healthy and happy.<\/p>\n

How have you had to change operations due to Covid-19?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We put a pause on programs and activities and enhanced disinfecting, cleaning and restricted visitation. We did that starting March 6, and then March 16, the Bay Area implemented a region-wide shelter in place.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been fortunate. Knock on wood, we haven\u2019t been impacted in terms of any cases in communities.<\/p>\n

Do you think Covid-19 will lead to lasting changes in how Priya operates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After that initial phase, we started to look at how we could start to bring our programming back, but use digital distribution for that. A crisis forces you to rethink your approach. For us, that\u2019s going to be something we take away from this \u2014 digital delivery of programming. Not exclusively, but we\u2019re going to use that much more. There\u2019s a lot of benefits.<\/p>\n

We do feel like we can deliver higher quality programming, because we\u2019re centralizing the production of programming. If you have 10 communities and you\u2019re doing yoga at every community, you\u2019re relying on whoever the local yoga instructor is, versus having your best yoga instructor teaching classes at all your communities.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve likened it to what Peloton has done. High-quality central production versus, in Peloton\u2019s case, physical spin studios.<\/p>\n

Can you describe how Priya has centralized the production of programming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we were first brainstorming about this, we really did think a lot about Peloton. We said, okay, we\u2019re going to get studio space in Oakland. We\u2019re going to bring our instructors there. It\u2019s going to be high production value. Obviously, we realized, you can\u2019t do that in the middle of a pandemic.<\/p>\n

What we did instead is, we created these packages that we mail to instructors at their home. The packages have high-definition video camera equipment, sound equipment, there\u2019s a backdrop, there\u2019s lighting, a little instruction package on how to do their setup at home.<\/p>\n

The other thing we like about the digital programming route is it\u2019s asynchronous. You don\u2019t have to take your yoga class on Tuesday at 10am. You can take it Friday at 5pm or whenever you want to. I think this experience has opened the door for people mentally, too, to be open to this.<\/p>\n

Going forward, once this is all done, does it mean everyone\u2019s taking their class in their unit? It could be some of that, it could be small groups coming together in a common area with a big screen, and in-person programming will still be there. The great thing is, you\u2019re creating a library of content, right? When you do a live yoga class in a community, it\u2019s gone. It\u2019s like Snapchat \u2014 there for 30 seconds. When it\u2019s recorded, you have so much utility from that one class that now lives on in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

Do you think Covid-19 will suppress consumer demand for independent living?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been kind of all over the place on this one. It certainly felt like there was going to be a seismic shift. Then, for me personally, the pendulum kind of swung in the other direction. I think people realizing the benefits of socialization is a really powerful thing. I imagine we all know people in our personal lives who are elders \u2014 I see this in my family, aunties and uncles that are stuck in their single-family homes, and it\u2019s been a really difficult experience.<\/p>\n

I do think it\u2019s going to help the industry in terms of people having lived through this and many of them deciding, I don\u2019t want to do this again.<\/p>\n

I think providing alternatives to folks that may be concerned about high-density congregate environments is a good idea. The small home model \u2014 that\u2019s something we\u2019ve thought about \u2026 you\u2019ve got most seniors in the country living in single-family homes and we\u2019re only converting 10% of them. So, it really begs the question, doesn\u2019t it make sense to provide these alternatives?<\/p>\n

I think a lot of arguments that have always been there for high density \u2014 that it\u2019s the most efficient way to deliver services \u2014 that\u2019s changed now, with technology.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Read the full interview<\/a> with Arun Paul on SHN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doing things differently is part of what separates Changemakers from the pack. At Priya Living, Founder Arun Paul fully lives up to that expectation. He\u2019s built Indian-inspired independent living communities that bring together not just older adults but people of all ages, races and religion. \u201cWhen the young people would come in, we started hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":25177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2952,3354],"tags":[2855,842],"class_list":["post-25180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-senior-living","category-team-yardi","tag-changemakers-series","tag-senior-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doing things differently is part of what separates Changemakers from the pack. At Priya Living, Founder Arun Paul fully lives up to that expectation. 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