Aging in place means modifying home or moving, but where to?

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Downsizing isn’t always the ideal choice for many greying homeowners in Edmonton’s resale market with many doing so because their current home is not suitable for aging in place.

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“We have had a great number of clients in the past few years who have faced the challenge of trying to age in place,” says Ed Lastiwka, associate realtor with Royal LePage Noralta in Edmonton.

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“It is difficult to retrofit a typical two-storey home with bedrooms only on the upper level or bathrooms and doorways unsuitable for someone, for example, in a wheelchair.”

Yet for these sellers, the challenges of aging in place are compounded due to their options for downsizing being limited by the stock of homes with accessible, or universal, designs.

Bungalow-style and apartment condominium projects typically are more compatible for older individuals who may have mobility or physical disabilities, he adds.

Yet few of those have incorporated universal design in Edmonton and, for that matter, across Canada, says an expert in the field.

“We’ve got an accessible housing crisis in Canada,” says Marnie Courage, a Winnipeg-based occupational therapist, who recently founded a company aimed at helping Canadians facing aging in place challenges.

Her company Incluzia Inc. won the the 2024 AGE-WELL National Impact Challenge: Solutions for Healthy Aging, held recently in Edmonton, for its apps MyHomeFX and MyHomeFXPro, which will be on the market next year.

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MyHomeFXPro is a subscription-based app designed to help occupational therapists evaluate homes for disabilities and aging, while MyHomeFX is a free app for homeowners to understand whether to “move or modify” their home to age in place, Courage says.

The apps make recommendations for modifications on everything from handrails to help individuals steady themselves in the bathroom to the removal of barriers like ridges for a walk-in shower.

Overall, these tools give homeowners a sense of what must be done to age in place safely, Courage says.

“We know a lot of older people are living with disabilities in unsafe and inaccessible homes,” she adds.

“That’s the biggest problem, and there is a ripple effect from there like fall-related hospitalizations.”

One Statistics Canada report from 2015 noted that 85 per cent of hospitalizations for adults over age 65 are the result of falls.

“Someone falls, breaks their hip and then they’re in the hospital often with a delay in the discharge because the home isn’t safe and accessible.”

Courage adds that modifications can cost a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.

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Yet families often sell under pressure when a loved one is in hospital, which is “the worst time to be selling a house,” Courage says.

Even for individuals who plan to move more age-friendly homes for ownership, they face challenges finding an appropriate home, she notes.

One City of Edmonton report from 2023 noted that individuals with disabilities cited the extreme lack of affordable options for them.

That said, awareness is increasing as the population ages along with new standards for accessible dwellings. Yet current building codes have yet to incorporate even basic accessible design in most cases, says Courage, who helped with the standards.

“We’re starting to see a few incentives for builders,” she notes, pointing to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. programs.

Lastiwka agrees the industry is slowly shifting with the growing need.

“We are seeing in some newer single-family homes elevators being installed to extend the number of years a family could stay in their house,” he adds.

Still, Courage sees a lot of room to grow.

“Look around your neighbourhood and ask yourself, ‘how many homes are accessible?’ The answer is likely ‘not many.’ ”

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