Something’s going on in the Heritage Hills neighborhood that may be the wave of the future. Two years in the process, movement afoot indicates that perhaps the neighborhood will soon be welcoming residents of the first Charles House Association ElderCare home.
Since 1990, the Charles House Eldercare Center in Carrboro has provided daytime care for the elderly of our community who remain vital enough to get out (with assistance), but who, for whatever reason, require some degree of supervision to avoid injury or confusion. Charles House has provided many loving families the respite and peace of mind needed to keep their aging relatives living in the home, offering safe daytime stimulation and socialization.
It has long been the Charles House Association dream to provide a residence where elders could live together in a home that keeps them in a neighborhood rather than in an institutional setting; a place where staff members insure that nutritional, hygienic and social needs are met, but where elders can still remain within the multi-generational fabric of life.
The residents of Heritage Hills fully caught the significance of that vision. The collective residents’ memory within the 30-something-year-old neighborhood of 220 homes has included losing aging homeowners who required a more conducive setting or of bringing aging relatives into their own homes to provide for them. A good number of these residents have appreciated the camaraderie offered at Charles House, so when the idea for the home was broached by Charles House board member and Heritage Hills resident Jerry Salak in August 2007, he brought along Charles House executive director Paul Klever to lead the discussion.
“People asked lots of very good questions,†said Salak, who works in UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. There were concerns over property values, annexation and even the fear of opening the door to have to accept other types of group homes.
During homeowners’ association meetings and via the active neighborhood list-serv, all qualms were addressed and the idea was accepted and approved in November 2007, with the caveat that Heritage Hills residents who meet the guidelines for admittance be given preference.
Now a former resident has contacted Salak and offered to sell the Charles House Association her four-bedroom ranch-style home that abuts a 74-acre wooded piece of property. The house has been empty for a while and needs some work, but it’s obvious that with a few modifications, including a kitchen-redo and converting the garage into a fifth bedroom, this house with a fireplace and built-in bookcases will not only provide a great place for five or six elderly folks to live out their days, but will also be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood.
“People want to be at home, they don’t want to feel isolated,†said Salak, who, along with his sister (who also owns a home in Heritage Hills), provided residence for their mother during the last six years of her life and witnessed the assets that living in a neighborhood afforded her.
It’s the interactions. “The elderly, and especially people with dementia, respond to children and animals,†he said. Additionally, teenagers needing to provide community service in order to graduate will be able to gain their service hours through yard work and other duties at the elder care home. Adults who want to contribute can be trained to become volunteers in the home.
As of May, Charles House has a six-month option to buy the house, during which time licensing by the state as a family care home and raising the funds to purchase it must be completed.
Optimistic best describes Klever’s mood concerning the project.
“This community should have a good nonprofit organization providing options to care for old people,†he said. “Of any community in North Carolina, it should be this one — trying innovations — not the tried and true institutional ways.â€
One question remains: Will this generous community support a new paradigm for our elderly? The Charles House Association certainly has the knowledge to accomplish it in ways that will make it a model that could be repeated in neighborhoods of every socio-economic stratum. In my years of covering Chapel Hill and Carrboro, one thing I’ve heard everywhere is, “this is such a great neighborhood.†Most of us would love to be able to stay “home†when the time comes that we can’t be home alone. Here’s our chance to help make it happen.
To learn more and/or become involved, call 967-7570, write paul@charleshouse.org or see charleshouse.org
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com